It is a shame that so many of these drugs are illegal and have been demonized, because they do have benefits for people at smaller doses as discussed. Some of the greatest work and innovation in the world has been created by people under the influence of one substance or another (from Picasso and his wormwood/absinthe to Steve Jobs and LSD).
In my own experience, I have used small doses of either amphetamines (both prescription and not), cocaine or various other narcotics (usually just dropped into a coffee) to take me through some big, demanding and complex projects. I know that this is not the 'correct' thing to say, but with self-control and knowledge about dosage, I can't think of a single downside to them being used in such a manner.
I can imagine that daily small doses would add up to a dependency which has its own ill effects.
Obligatory Bill Hicks quote:
“See I think drugs have done some good things for us, I really do, and if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor: go home tonight and take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your cds and burn 'em. 'cause you know the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years.... rrrrrrrrreal fkin high on drugs.”
Don't understand this to be showing off or upvote as karma baiting, but I really need to say this:
I've written some marvelous code and completed gargantuan projects on my lonesome, battling thousands of lines of assembly and debugging hardware circuits and stuff.... and never used.
It's stupid to think your brain needs an external stimulus to be creative. You can be creative and withstand by just willing it - it's just not the easiest way out. When you take drugs you're either lying to yourself and pretending there is no harm in fucking up your brain - losing sense of priorities, time, yourself, and the world around you - or afraid of how it would feel without them.
Anyone can do anything without these drugs, and I'm speaking from experience. Staying up for 65 hours straight? Been there, done that with nothing more than coffee and cold showers. Write some brilliant hacks that do something genius in little lines of code? Check. Debug memory leaks and crashes across over 100k lines of C code going to and from different dynamically-linked libraries? Check. Writing your own OS Kernel? Check.
I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish, because that's just not true.
Before anyone rushes to try LSD[1], please do your research.
Please speak to people who have used it (like me) and can assess how you personally will handle it. I will say LSD is a broad-sword drug and should be used with care. It is not playful. It will last as long as the dose, which may be longer than you had planned to trip. Generally only sleep will stop you tripping, and if you are tripping hard, you will not e able to sleep. One does not 'sober up' like beer.
A lot of the effects depend on your personality, id, self confidence and any bad experiences you may have locked inside. Your biological reaction may be the lesast of concerns.
LSD takes you on a journey, and you may not come the same person. It may give you a bad-trip, where your worst fears and memories manifest x 1000.
I have seen many stable friends flip out, even when having the same dose in the same environment.
Always have supportive straight friends who understand each time you are experimenting. Bear in mind you may be up for 36 hours as a result and they need to lead their normal lives.
What about if you take a low non-psychotic dose? I've read that if you take an extremely low dose it's non-psychotic but still has a number of positive cognitive effects. So, is this possible and, if so, is it true?
I achieve exceptional mental clarity by getting my sleep under control. I know I got everythign right if I wake up the exact moment the light from sunrise hits my window and feel fully rested. For the next 2-3 hours I can absorb twice the usual complexity with little effort.
I feel the same way. If I get the exact right combination of sleep, food, caffeine, and interesting work, my productivity is easily 100x that of a normal day.
I wish every day was like that, but the reality of the world (deadlines, distractions like HN) means that it only happens a few times a month.
Yes! Getting enough sleep is the #1 productivity enhancer, IMHO. All of the other tips and techniques are smaller terms in the equation.
The insidious thing about sleep deprivation is that people can be measurably more stupid, yet feel like "oh I'm just a bit tired -- I'll have a coffee".
I ended up writing a C++ program that just made the internal speaker beep in an infinite loop, and tried to compile it with a C compiler.
I started laughing hysterically and I became quite scared that the C compiler was going to get angry with me, so I went outside and stayed away from my computer in fear.
To be fair to the government, unless you're selling or holding a significant amount, you wouldn't go to jail. You most certainly wouldn't be put in jail for taking a few micrograms of LSD in the comfort of your own home (or office).
There's been research that has shown quite reliably that sub-recreational doses of LSD and Mescaline (not combined) can induce incredibly vivid visions that can help a person visualize a problem they've been trying to solve, and in the end, make the problem solving easier if not trivial.
The experiment was done to see if the effects of psychedelics were merely "right-brained" and creativity enhancing, or if they could improve harder more technical cognition as well. It turns out they do improve technical cognition quite drastically.
Another interesting data point: Kary Mullis, the inventor of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR, aka DNA amplification), credits LSD with helping him to make his discovery -- and thanked Albert Hofmann, LSD's inventor, personally.
LSD is a tool, not a toy. Bandsaws are fun too, but people lose fingers.
Fascinating. I notice that he is associated with "trance research", of a sort that's hard to evaluate from a couple minutes' googling. Trance and psychedelics do partly resemble each other.
I studied trance pretty intensively with a student of Milton Erickson's. Part of what drew me to it was a sense that it might be connected in interesting ways to the creative process. As it turned out, it was. But I don't use it very often.
I'm not one to poo-poo a good hacker story from the 70s nor something that challenges the US government's woeful drug policy. But I couldn't help thinking: how many complicated computer problems have been solved _without_ the use of psychedelics?
Admittedly I've never written a compiler in 360 assembly on or off LSD, but it seems like the better thing to do would be to take a step back and think through the design better (that would have been my first reaction at least...).
That's exactly what he was doing. The codebase had reached the point where it was overly complex, and he wanted to simplify the design. If look at his conclusion he only refers to making design decisions, not writing new code or designing algorithms.
"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less. "
Readers may also be interested in this more in-depth article about LSD being used to solve engineering problems encountered by Kevin Herbert, a Cisco engineer:
Ooh, John Lilly. The original dolphin-researching, consciousness-exploring, LSD-experimenting, sensory-isolation-tank-inventing counterculture hero. HN goes DFH!
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.
Edit: interesting use of the term "metaprogramming" in 1972, no? And typical Lilly: extremely plugged-in metaphorically and just as hard to pin down.
That's just remarkable. I've always wondered if one could get objective information from a psychedelic experience, but most of the time, the stuff you bring back makes no sense once sober. I guess the dosage is very important, you want just enough to get enhanced senses...
The biggest problem with using LSD in such a way is that the dosage is incredibly small even when full-blown tripping. It'd be very, very difficult to get a small, measured amount from anything you get off the street. I guess you could do it from a sugarcube, but good luck. I guess it's not all bad, though; even if you don't hit your goal, you'll get a good time out of it.
In 1987 Peter Molzberger did a series of interesting experiments combining programming with MDMA and NLP at the University of the Armed Forces in Munich (Universitaet der Bundeswehr).
[+] [-] nikblack|17 years ago|reply
In my own experience, I have used small doses of either amphetamines (both prescription and not), cocaine or various other narcotics (usually just dropped into a coffee) to take me through some big, demanding and complex projects. I know that this is not the 'correct' thing to say, but with self-control and knowledge about dosage, I can't think of a single downside to them being used in such a manner.
I can imagine that daily small doses would add up to a dependency which has its own ill effects.
Obligatory Bill Hicks quote:
“See I think drugs have done some good things for us, I really do, and if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor: go home tonight and take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your cds and burn 'em. 'cause you know the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years.... rrrrrrrrreal fkin high on drugs.”
[+] [-] ComputerGuru|17 years ago|reply
I've written some marvelous code and completed gargantuan projects on my lonesome, battling thousands of lines of assembly and debugging hardware circuits and stuff.... and never used.
It's stupid to think your brain needs an external stimulus to be creative. You can be creative and withstand by just willing it - it's just not the easiest way out. When you take drugs you're either lying to yourself and pretending there is no harm in fucking up your brain - losing sense of priorities, time, yourself, and the world around you - or afraid of how it would feel without them.
Anyone can do anything without these drugs, and I'm speaking from experience. Staying up for 65 hours straight? Been there, done that with nothing more than coffee and cold showers. Write some brilliant hacks that do something genius in little lines of code? Check. Debug memory leaks and crashes across over 100k lines of C code going to and from different dynamically-linked libraries? Check. Writing your own OS Kernel? Check.
I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish, because that's just not true.
[+] [-] tezza|16 years ago|reply
Please speak to people who have used it (like me) and can assess how you personally will handle it. I will say LSD is a broad-sword drug and should be used with care. It is not playful. It will last as long as the dose, which may be longer than you had planned to trip. Generally only sleep will stop you tripping, and if you are tripping hard, you will not e able to sleep. One does not 'sober up' like beer.
A lot of the effects depend on your personality, id, self confidence and any bad experiences you may have locked inside. Your biological reaction may be the lesast of concerns.
LSD takes you on a journey, and you may not come the same person. It may give you a bad-trip, where your worst fears and memories manifest x 1000.
I have seen many stable friends flip out, even when having the same dose in the same environment.
Always have supportive straight friends who understand each time you are experimenting. Bear in mind you may be up for 36 hours as a result and they need to lead their normal lives.
------------
[1] Or increase your dose significantly
[+] [-] petercooper|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DenisM|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrockway|17 years ago|reply
I wish every day was like that, but the reality of the world (deadlines, distractions like HN) means that it only happens a few times a month.
[+] [-] JabavuAdams|16 years ago|reply
The insidious thing about sleep deprivation is that people can be measurably more stupid, yet feel like "oh I'm just a bit tired -- I'll have a coffee".
[+] [-] Zarathu|16 years ago|reply
I ended up writing a C++ program that just made the internal speaker beep in an infinite loop, and tried to compile it with a C compiler.
I started laughing hysterically and I became quite scared that the C compiler was going to get angry with me, so I went outside and stayed away from my computer in fear.
[+] [-] jrockway|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tdavis|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] psygnisfive|17 years ago|reply
The experiment was done to see if the effects of psychedelics were merely "right-brained" and creativity enhancing, or if they could improve harder more technical cognition as well. It turns out they do improve technical cognition quite drastically.
[+] [-] gamache|16 years ago|reply
LSD is a tool, not a toy. Bandsaws are fun too, but people lose fingers.
[+] [-] gruseom|17 years ago|reply
I studied trance pretty intensively with a student of Milton Erickson's. Part of what drew me to it was a sense that it might be connected in interesting ways to the creative process. As it turned out, it was. But I don't use it very often.
[+] [-] AndrewO|17 years ago|reply
[Insert obligatory joke about Linux, BSD, Perl, Lisp, C, etc here...]
Admittedly I've never written a compiler in 360 assembly on or off LSD, but it seems like the better thing to do would be to take a step back and think through the design better (that would have been my first reaction at least...).
Put another way: I'd say LSD is code smell. :)
[+] [-] sjf|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csbartus|17 years ago|reply
The first pharagraph sounds like:
"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less. "
[+] [-] nailer|17 years ago|reply
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015 & http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v18n1/v18n1-MAPS_21-23.pdf
[+] [-] gruseom|17 years ago|reply
In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits.
Edit: interesting use of the term "metaprogramming" in 1972, no? And typical Lilly: extremely plugged-in metaphorically and just as hard to pin down.
[+] [-] cloudhead|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daeken|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeugma|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fluffster|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andreyf|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kragen|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mooneater|17 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lispmeister|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] revenant|16 years ago|reply
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