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The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

blissbat.net

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Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#2
Imagine posting this today: cite your sources, anecdotes are meaningless, n of 1, etc. It's interesting that "Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring." aligns with the recent post about caffeine boosting work capacity but no effect on creativity.

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#3
While writing La Comédie Humaine - 92 books and many more unfinished, from 1829 to 1850 - Balzac is said to have started his days around midnight. He would write till 8am, with some breaks for walks, rest for an hour, then write again till 4p. At that time he would bathe, receive friends for dinner, and go to bed at 6p or 7p. He drank a lot of coffee.

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#4
post #2

Imagine posting this today: cite your sources, anecdotes are meaningless, n of 1, etc. It's interesting that "Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring." aligns with the recent post about caffeine boosting work capacity but no effect on creativity.

Somebody posted it there as a comment. That's why we have the article here now I presume.

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#6
post #2

Imagine posting this today: cite your sources, anecdotes are meaningless, n of 1, etc. It's interesting that "Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring." aligns with the recent post about caffeine boosting work capacity but no effect on creativity.

https://erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Caffeine.shtml These are some modern takes on the same idea. Now that we know the “barely perceptible radations” from stomach to brain have a formula.

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#7
Great writing of Mr Balzac about coffee.

According to research he came out as a man of extremes - "Overweight, workaholic, and a caffeine abuser, Honoré de Balzac lived a life of excess. He prematurely died at the age of 51 owing to gangrene associated with congestive heart failure."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27638234

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#8
post #2

Imagine posting this today: cite your sources, anecdotes are meaningless, n of 1, etc. It's interesting that "Many people claim coffee inspires them, but, as everybody knows, coffee only makes boring people even more boring." aligns with the recent post about caffeine boosting work capacity but no effect on creativity.

If you post on HN people assume it must be science not creative writing. I enjoyed reading this a lot more than the regular content.

Re: The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee (1830)

#10

Great writing of Mr Balzac about coffee. According to research he came out as a man of extremes - "Overweight, workaholic, and a caffeine abuser, Honoré de Balzac lived a life of excess. He prematurely died at the age of 51 owing to gangrene associated with congestive heart failure." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27638234

Not just extremes in what he swallowed: he’s notorious for “La Comédie Humaine” [0] his dozens of novels are actually set in the same fictional world, with consistent characters across decades. You can take excerpts from several books to tell a completely original story. It’s the most detailed world ever described —from individual thoughts to gruesome details about poverty, up to overarching consequences of the industrial revolution on the remaining aristocracy.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Com%C3%A9die_humaine

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