Nootropic Brain Drugs Rise in Popularity for Today’s Corporate Climbers

The one thing that really interests me about this is the long-term damage you are doing to yourself. There appear to be two types of stimulants. There are the legal ones like caffeine that have a moderate effect and are not significantly unhealthy unless consumed in extreme quantities. And there are the illegal ones like amphetamines that have a significant effect, but will also cause a great deal of harm the more you use them. So, there seems to be a clear correlation between the size of the effect and the harm done.<p>This then begs the question where these new substances stand. Are they barely more than caffeine and mostly harmless? Is maybe the placebo effect playing a role in making them appear more effective to the user than they truly are? But if they do have a significant effect, at what price does it come? The human body needs rest, that is a pretty well-established fact. It seems unlikely that these substances would be able to change this fundamental principle. What does seem likely, if they indeed are effective, is that you are buying more alertness for the moment, but paying for it in the long run.<p>Normally substances are researched and tested by professionals for years and sometimes decades before declared safe. But even that process is not always perfect and substances with harmful side effects have been known to slip through. Potentially turning yourself into a human vegetable a couple of decades down the road by experimenting with these barely understood substances seems like a dangerous proposition.

Phenibut (beta-phenyl-GABA, mentioned in the article) is a GABA-B drug discovered in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. It&#x27;s not approved for any health condition in the US, but is sold as a &quot;dietary supplement&quot;. It acts on the same receptor as Baclofen, a prescription drug that&#x27;s used to relieve muscle spasms and spasticity. In higher doses, it can affect GABA-A, with effects similar to alcohol or some benzodiazepines. After regular use measured in weeks, it can cause a potentially life-threatening withdrawal syndrome that includes seizures.<p>As someone who&#x27;s taken it a couple times, didn&#x27;t get much out of it, and is now amazed he didn&#x27;t end up in serious trouble: stay the hell away from Phenibut. Or, don&#x27;t take my word for it: Google for &quot;phenibut withdrawal&quot;.

Massive, massive potential for the placebo effect. This needs to be tested in a randomised double blind trial with standardised testing of the purported cognitive enhancements. Until then it&#x27;s snake oil.

I suppose it&#x27;s only natural that people are resorting to these when huge swathes of the American youth are being prescribed Adderall and similar and gaining a competitive edge with them over those who don&#x27;t have access to them.<p>I previously looked at sourcing modafinil but ultimately decided against it due the the sources available looking dodgy, a lack of clarity in the laws around it, etc. As more reputable companies emerge in the sector I think I may well end up giving the products a go.

To each his own. I prefer drugs typically associated with decreased work ability and increased aptitude for fun.

Is it just me that worries about a race to the bottom with brain hacking? Assume some combination of nootropics&#x2F;transcranial stimulation&#x2F;etc gives you a short-term edge for unknown (or known) long term risk.<p>If you&#x27;re a profit-maximizing employer, would you rather hire the person who performs better today, or the person who is looking out for their own long-term safety? Or if you&#x27;re a startup founder competing against a bunch of doped up super-brains, how strong must the incentive be to join the dark side?<p>I see similarities with professional sports, where athletic associations are always playing Whac-A-Mole with performance enhancing drugs, and top earning athletes routinely get chastised for doping. Should we expect outcomes in knowledge work to be different if brain hacking proves as effective?

This further illustrates how terribly unfair modern medical systems are. Want to change your brain chemistry? You&#x27;ve gotta do a song-and-dance for a doctor. Who might either hate &quot;addicts&quot;, or be terrified of the DEA. Do a poor job lying and try again? Oh, now you&#x27;re &quot;doctor shopping&quot;, which some want to criminalize. Have an in with a doctor or have enough money, well then it&#x27;s no problem. (Sure, money buys a lot of leeway in everything, but this is a fairly basic freedom.)<p>I&#x27;m not an American but from what I was taught about folks like Ben Franklin, I think they&#x27;d be shocked to know it has become illegal to determine your own treatment.

How rampant is nootropic use in Silicon Valley?

Why does this remind me so much of the multi-level marketing companies that are so prevalent in Utah, making bold unproven claims about their tropical fruit juices?

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nootropic" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nootropic</a>

people who want to get ahead will do their best to cheat without getting caught, and will take unreasonable risks... doing whatever it takes to succeed. this is not new.<p>personally i prefer to dumb myself down with a bit of weed... :)

I used a fairly popular, legal nootropic and set off a manic episode. Not hypomania (I&#x27;m cyclothymic, so I&#x27;m used to that and it&#x27;s usually benign) but scary, saw-code-when-I-closed-my-eyes mania. (It was bad code but at least it wasn&#x27;t Java.) Also, mania isn&#x27;t usually &quot;happy&quot;; it&#x27;s 15% euphoria but 35% anger and 50% anxiety. Based on one episode (eh, maybe two or three; before your mid-20s it is hard to tell) I give the experience 0 stars.<p>Obviously this is not a common reaction, and probably very rare with most nootropics. I just want to point out that there <i>are</i> long-tail risks to this. Although many of these agents are probably safe for the majority of the population, creative and ambitious people are likely to be already a high-risk group.<p>If you&#x27;re a mathematician or artist or novelist advancing the state of humanity, &quot;enhance&quot; away, and I&#x27;ll wish you the best in recovery if you get unlucky. If you&#x27;re a corporate climber and you blow your brain out trying to gain an edge in a zero-sum game, then I have zero sympathy.