I know a small handful of founders on a personal level and none of them take modafinil or adderall.
Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
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Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#12I think there's an important point to make (although I don't have empirical evidence of this), that ADHD is way more prevalent in startup founders than the general population. This is logical when you consider that those with ADHD are less likely to be fulfilled by a desk job and are more likely to be risk taking.
In general I've found that unmedicated ADHD founders seem more common than medicated, but I wouldn't count on that as generalizable or fact.
In terms of people without ADHD using Modafanil or amphetamines to get an edge, I'm sure that happens a lot, but it's less common than Wall Street or high-powered law firms.
Funnily enough, I just started taking Modafanil this week.
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#13Here's a better question: How many people at founder level actually have to take drug tests?
People at the bottom piss in cups all the time. I have a sneaking suspicion the top rarely does.
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#14In 20 years in the industry, most spent in startups, much spent consulting with a pretty broad spectrum of other startups, I have never known anyone I've worked with to take modafanil. That's just one data point. But: I don't think it's at all common.
I've worked with you, and it was false for me. I concealed it because of social stigma. (Adderall, not modafanil.)
Perhaps you're referring to founders specifically though, rather than people you've worked with.
There's immense pressure to say nothing. And that translates into you not knowing.
But the leap to "It's therefore not common" would be mistaken.
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#15In 20 years in the industry, most spent in startups, much spent consulting with a pretty broad spectrum of other startups, I have never known anyone I've worked with to take modafanil. That's just one data point. But: I don't think it's at all common.
I took modafanil while working for AWS and I never felt the need to bring it up - what makes you think everyone you interact with is listing all their medication to you?
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#16I don't know of anyone in tech who takes these things, except for myself. I also don't know anyone who microdoses LSD, although I doubt those people would tell anyone. If I wanted LSD, I don't know anyone I could ask. I get my modafinil online.
This could also be a part of the media's unfortunate tendency to conflate "tech founder" with "software engineer", and "San Francisco" with "Silicon Valley" -- I wouldn't be surprised that you'll see more smart drug use among people in the former than the latter.
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#17There is a documentary on Netflix called "Take your pills" about Aderall (and it's cousin Ritalin). According to it a lot of people under 25 take it, they feature a student, a software developer, a financial analyst.
After watching it my understanding of Aderall is that it makes you capable of intense focus (a sort of anti-procrastinator). It doesn't make you smarter or capable of solving stuff that you couldn't before. They end with saying that it destroys lives and that it's dangerous, but they never quite delivered on that, one guy said that it destroyed his life but he never went into detail and he didn't look like you typical image of a crack-addict (ie: felt to me more of like a thing they did to prevent them being accused of promoting drugs).
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#18The media focus on what is extraordinary. "Granny walks home safely for 2,472th time" is not going to get a front page splash in any newspaper save for The Onion.
Similarly, "many men and women do not take a particular drug" is not going to move copies of Wired.
What brings eyeballs is novelty. Danger. Jealousy. Sex. Power.
What doesn't bring eyeballs are repetitious, unremarkable, properly calibrated statements of reality. Our brain already tunes that signal out.
By way of disclaimer, I take methylphenidate as a treatment for ADHD-PI.
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#19Here's a better question: How many people at founder level actually have to take drug tests? People at the bottom piss in cups all the time. I have a sneaking suspicion the top rarely does.
In SV I have yet to run into a tech company that drug tests.
It once came up in a higher up meeting at a company I worked at and someone snickered and said “never gonna happen. I would lose a bunch of my top performers.”
(I am sure there are companies that test but it is the exception here.)
Re: Ask HN: How true is it that most founders are taking drugs like Modafanil?
#20Not a founder but I do want to share some information to act as context for the other responses.
I use modafinil quite regularly.
It is very easy to get.
No one that i don't do drugs with recreationally knows that I use it. If it came up in a discussion with people I know professionally and I needed to contribute an opinion, it'd be slightly negative and dismissive of the idea.