Would be interesting seeing the effects of microdosing psychedelics for chess. In theory, it should improve problem-solving skills. While the effects of stimulants seem rather expected in this situation, I think seeing information on microcodes of LSD or psilocybin would be very interesting because they could change performance in different ways.
New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
61–70 of 141 posts
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> where they discarded human losses on time. This stinks of p-value hunting. I can only imagine the study went like this. They did all these tests and then found that there were no statistically significant improvements after using these drugs. So they said to themselves, how can we tweak the parameters so as to get something publishable? Sure, let's eliminate an entire class of games where our control group does bet…
> else we'd all spend five hours on each move. Chess is about bounded rationality Without any other tools (as in, pencil and paper to note conclusions), do you really think you could make a more effective move given five hours? I mean - if the conclusion of the study is actually that use of drugs gave players a larger personal time bounds within which to think up a move, that's still significant. I don't know about y…
> On the other hand, if your experiment is expecting one correlation, and instead you find another... then the p-value hunting was the correct move...?
at best you'd have to make corrections to your p values to account for the fact you're conducting multiple tests. those corrections weaken the results. (i did not check this paper to see if they did the corrections.)
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#63I've been taking 400mg of Magnesium Glycinate two times a day along with 200mg of Theanine (also twice a day) with my usual two cups of coffee. I feel fantastically focused without the jittery edge that accompanies caffeine alone.
I was given some L Theanine by a friend of mine, because I complained about not being able to silent my thoughts when I sleep. Apparently, L Theanine is great at reducing this mental crosstalk. I tried some for a few nights, but I didn't notice an appreciable change. Did you notice the effects after taking it for a few weeks, or do you get them immediately?
The Theanine effect is quite immediate and pretty noticeable.
But, if someone weren't anxious before or noticed enough that they have unwanted thoughts, I could see how the effects may not be apparent.
Caffeine usually has my heart racing. Even breathing slowly doesn't bring my pulse down. Within 20 minutes of ingesting Theanine, my pulse feels normal. My mind is no longer panicky.
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#64I've been taking 400mg of Magnesium Glycinate two times a day along with 200mg of Theanine (also twice a day) with my usual two cups of coffee. I feel fantastically focused without the jittery edge that accompanies caffeine alone.
I was given some L Theanine by a friend of mine, because I complained about not being able to silent my thoughts when I sleep. Apparently, L Theanine is great at reducing this mental crosstalk. I tried some for a few nights, but I didn't notice an appreciable change. Did you notice the effects after taking it for a few weeks, or do you get them immediately?
[deleted]
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#65I've been taking 400mg of Magnesium Glycinate two times a day along with 200mg of Theanine (also twice a day) with my usual two cups of coffee. I feel fantastically focused without the jittery edge that accompanies caffeine alone.
I can't take Caffeine without L-Theanine. If I take caffeine alone I bite all of my nails and get a general sense of impending doom along with a shitty mood.
I ordered caffeine malaete, which is just caffeine bound to malic acid, in an attempt to cut out some of the stomach unpleasantness.
I had heard it was a little more gentle on the stomach and figured it was worth a shot, as caffeine is cheap anyway.
it actually worked as promised, it doesn't bother my stomach as much as a caffeine tablet or regular caffeine powder.
I usually mix it 1:2 with L-Theanine and cap it just like I would with regular caffeine and it gets the job done.
less jitters, less feeling like I'm going to die if I haven't eaten, less stomach unpleasantness. etc.
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
nicotine through pill, not smoking a cigarette?
Nicotine is best administrated through gum or a transdermal patch. I haven't heard of many people using it in pill form. Nicotine alone is similar to smoking a cigarette, but not identical: cigarettes also contain MAOI inhibitors which have synergistic effects with nicotine.
Just a minor correction, MAOI = MAO inhibitors. MAOI inhibitors is redundant.
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#67Would be interesting seeing the effects of microdosing psychedelics for chess. In theory, it should improve problem-solving skills. While the effects of stimulants seem rather expected in this situation, I think seeing information on microcodes of LSD or psilocybin would be very interesting because they could change performance in different ways.
Yes, and for programming as well. Should be easy to test.
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#68Hah. Oddly enough this tallies with my experience - about 5 years ago I ended up buying a box of modafinil and took them periodically before work. Someone asked me about what I thought of them and I reflected that I wasn't sure if it helped my work or not but that it meant I could beat my phone Chess app on a harder difficult setting than usual when I played on the way to work.
You may be an under-responder. With modafinil there seem to be large populations that are over/under-sensitive. I bought a box about 4 years ago as well to see if it helped at work. I turned out to be sensitive to it and later investigated studies linking my genotype with sensitivity (specifically a pleiotropic SNP in the COMT gene rs4680/Val158Met). Most sequencing includes this well-studied SNP in the panel if you'…
I have some similar experiences myself. I take modafinil for narcolepsy.
A 200mg dose makes me really sleepy. A 50-100mg dose makes me more alert, especially with a small amount of caffeine. A larger amount of caffeine with 50-100mg makes me sleepy again.
How did you get the sequencing done? I know I've been tested for the gene associated with cataplexy (HLA-DQB1*0602 I think), but not sure about the others you mentioned.
Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess
#69I actually did a test myself with pot a while back, also playing against a computer, my thinking there was that it would provide the most consistent opponent skill level. I tried varying amounts. I saw a fairly significant improvement with small doses, less than what someone would use for entertainment purposes, an amount just before what could be called a high. I think it may increase concentration at the right dosage level.