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LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

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Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#281
post #3

In college I lived with artists. A few of their artist friends come over with big sketch pads, pencils and whatever else artists use. They all drop acid while telling me they can't wait to see their amazing creations once their minds are opened. I went out for a few hours and came back to find them all sitting around the living room. One sketch pad had a long black squiggle on it, the same design you'd make if you fe…

Not LSD related, but drug related: A friend of mine tried to program while on Salvia (I gave him the programming problem to solve: basically implement Solomon Golombs self-describing sequence) and as he scribbled notes on paper, he kept muttering phrases like "what is she saying to me now". We didn't check the results until the next morning, but it turned out he had figured out an O(1) closed form for the sequence -…

This is HN, man. Post the solution here and see if it works or not.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#282
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, for me, Chantix is a quit smoking wonder drug, it made it surprisingly easy for me to quit my 15 year pack-a-day addiction.

Per the Wikipedia page it looks interesting, although I've been almost successful with the patch in the past, and know essentially what to expect. I had used the gum (the gratification wasn't quite instant enough) and the "e-cigarettes" (nicotine vaporizers) before with neither working for very long. I had also tried (ill-advisedly) Adderall, which is supposed to calm nicotine cravings for some. (It really only made…

What's been working for me over the past year is Swedish snus. It has definitely broken me of the 20 year addiction to the process of smoking cigarettes. It's amazing how much of the addiction was to everything about smoking other than nicotine. Snus is a borefest. Avoid any of the American snuses (Camel/Marlboro), it'll turn you off to the idea before you get started because they're sweet and gross and barely have any nicotine. I recommend the "General" white portion and/or mint, and the mini-portions are unnoticeable.

Easy to reduce on because you know exactly how many milligrams you're taking (like methadone or something) because of Swedish labelling rules. I'm hoping to be off snus within the next three or four months, but there's no big hurry because it's pretty cheap and very safe in comparison to other tobacco products.

Internet ordering directly from Sweden is easy, and some of the fancier US tobacco shops are starting to carry it - so you might get lucky.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#283

If you have any predisposition towards psychosis, in family history or personally, please avoid LSD. For those firmly rooted, it might be pleasurable or productive to become a little less so. If you're already sometimes on the edge, LSD can push you over. This happened to one of my best friends. Growing up he was crazy, creative, always saw things a little differently, prone to manic behavior. After a year of regular…

I don't want to disagree with your opinion of the cause of your friend's psychosis, as you observed the process and I didn't, but as a general statement I'd like to put out there that the time of life when schizophrenia presents (late teens, twenties, early thirties) correlates with the years when people usually experiment with drugs. This has been true since before LSD existed.

http://schizophrenia.com/photos/szage.onset.gif

from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8178665?dopt=Abstract

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#284
post #220

There's no reason to attempt to prove (because you can't) or even speculate (because it doesn't matter) whether any of the "best" programmers anyone has or could suggest have done LSD or still do on a regular basis. However, I find it odd when people seem to insist that LSD is completely unnecessary or necessary to do things. Like it has been brought up before, Steve Jobs cites LSD as one of the most important experi…

I don't know that Steve Jobs is creative as much as he is an unrelenting perfectionist. He doesn't design things, Apple's recent success comes mostly from his ability to say "No, that's not good enough. Try again." Maybe his confidence to do that comes from having experienced some sort of revelations or profound experiences on LSD that make "good, but not good enough" products seem even more mundane and pedestrian to…

That's a good point, although I would argue that he is in fact extremely creative. However, his creativity isn't physically manifest. It lies in his ability to translate abstract ideas about UX paradigms into devices. You're right though, LSD could have / may have given him a new conception of what is "perfect" that led to a his particular brand of perfectionism.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One small point of confusion with your otherwise good post: Some of the Thai surgeons are the best in the world for that particular procedure... going there is not typically considered a bad decision.

Actually Thai surgeons in general are very good. I recently entrusted my fiancee to one and the medical care she received was outstanding. The fastest growing tourism segment here is medical tourism. High quality care at a relatively low cost & lots of good food.

My mistake. Thanks for correcting me (both of you). I had gotten the impression that people went to Thailand for cheap surgeries that usually worked out but that it was a little sketchy/suboptimal/risky.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#286
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not LSD related, but drug related: A friend of mine tried to program while on Salvia (I gave him the programming problem to solve: basically implement Solomon Golombs self-describing sequence) and as he scribbled notes on paper, he kept muttering phrases like "what is she saying to me now". We didn't check the results until the next morning, but it turned out he had figured out an O(1) closed form for the sequence -…

This is HN, man. Post the solution here and see if it works or not.

I can't. We laughed it off and didn't think much more of it until much later, but by then we lost the notebook. Like I said, I have no proof, sadly.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#287

I offer some of the highlights of my personal experience with LSD, anonymously, due to the very unfortunate stigma. I'm very positive on its ability to unlock potential, trigger insights, expand perspective, and facilitate learning, even in spite of having experienced a few bad trips. Although the experience is deeply personal, I'll try to offer the most concrete accounts I can. First, of all the hundreds of little i…

"What's a color? What's a country? What's a "week"? What's a leader? What is solid? Which way is up? What's a job? Your brain starts trying to decompose every concept into basic principles, and you realize that for a lot of things in the human world, there are none." While I've personally never tried LSD, my favorite is, e, which offers a similar, but different, opening of the mind. Since I've never tried LSD, I can…

The two are very different....

He said it perfectly when he said it "slaps you in the face" with this idea.

It's like all your input filters and mechanisms for categorizing things are stripped away, and your mind just gets raw input - filters you normally don't even realize are there. This makes a speck of dirt on the floor just as interesting as the hot chick standing next to you - and it can make it difficult to impossible to utter a coherent sentence, let alone put together a coherent thought - it's more like raw, pure sensation, unfiltered.

Of course, there's the psychedelic part, with visual disturbances and sensory weirdness too.....

There is no guarantee of good feelings or euphoria like you get with E.... it can best be described as simply "an experience"

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#288
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have ADD and am a coder. I am on Concerta (methylphenidate, a derivative of methamphetamine) and find that my interest in math, as well as programming, has increased significantly.

Me too, though I prefer dexamphetamine. I've given dex to other programmers on occasion; they're often amazed at how much it helps them concentrate and get things done. It's kind of like coffee that WORKS. Hence my favourite programming beverage: grind your beans, sprinkle finely powdered amphetamine on the top of the basket, and make yourself a nice motherfuckiato.

Any of them ever end up with a bad amphetamine habit after that?

That's mighty addictive stuff, for someone with the wrong combination of genetics and psychology, this could be really bad.

The drug war is full of nonsense - but amphetamines are regulated for a good reason.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#289
post #3

In college I lived with artists. A few of their artist friends come over with big sketch pads, pencils and whatever else artists use. They all drop acid while telling me they can't wait to see their amazing creations once their minds are opened. I went out for a few hours and came back to find them all sitting around the living room. One sketch pad had a long black squiggle on it, the same design you'd make if you fe…

I can certainly believe this - LSD is screwy like this.

On one of the very few occasions I used it, I had what I thought was a profound understanding of how everything in the universe was connected together. I couldn't recall what the big idea was afterwards (or to this day), but I'm quite certain it was just my brain making up nonsense.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#290
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not LSD related, but drug related: A friend of mine tried to program while on Salvia (I gave him the programming problem to solve: basically implement Solomon Golombs self-describing sequence) and as he scribbled notes on paper, he kept muttering phrases like "what is she saying to me now". We didn't check the results until the next morning, but it turned out he had figured out an O(1) closed form for the sequence -…

I just can't visualize anyone doing any kind of meaningful thinking while in the influence of salvia divinorum, or scribbling, the effect is just too strong and too disconnected from our reality. The only thing in your story that gives it a bit of credibility is this: "He claimed a woman told him the answer." Anyway, not enough to convince me. Edit: of course, I would like to know more :)

I don't care if you believe me. I cannot prove it, so I won't lose sleep if you think I made it up. For me, its enough that I witnessed it.

Having said that, I obviously simplified the story and I have a pretty good theory of how he came up with the solution (since I now know the guy a lot better). I actually think he has a very very slight case of autism (never diagnosed, but over the years, there have been some hints that it may be the case). I of course don't believe that a woman actually told him the solution, I think the autism is what helped him come up with it (since properly autistic people are able to do some amazing things) and the drug made him trip out and believe a woman spoke to him.

As for not believing that somebody could do things on Salvia, I disagree. Normally I don't like to admit to drug use on the internet (since its easy to figure out who I am), but what the hell. Maybe I'll come to regret it later... While I haven't taken any in a few years, I have taken Salvia many times over the past ten-ish years (and I took it that night with my friend too). I have taken it in the middle of the day, in the sun. I have taken it at night, in a dark room. I have taken it at a party (despite people saying its not a party drug). Each time the experience was very very different. It depends on your surroundings and on your mood. Yes, salvia is extremely intense and gives a very disconnected experience, but I think the actual extent depends on the factors I mentioned above. For example, every time I took it at night, it was a very weird and "heavy" experience, but when I took it in the sun, it was a bright and happy (almost mdma-like) experience.

I don't know if you get this on Salvia, but most people I have spoken to about it have said they experienced something similar. When on Salvia, theres this feeling of "pressure" pulling you into the experience (often its a feeling of something pushing or pulling you some direction, perhaps spinning around, falling or weightlessness). I've got this every time (that I remember, there may have been times when I didn't that I don't remember). Every time I've tried to resist it and go against it, I broke out in heavy sweats. When we did the programming problem, it took a LOT of effort to resist it to write in the notepad. After a few minutes, I gave in and forgot about the notepad (skin soaked with sweat). I guess my friend was able to resist it more than I was. But. honestly, I don't remember the exact details, nor do I remember anything about the trip I had or what I wrote in my own notepad, since my friends was much more interesting and this happened maybe five or six years ago.

My point is that it is hard to resist it, but its not impossible (at least, for a while) and while resisting it, you can be tripping and still do things (well, kind of). But, at the end of the day, if you don't believe me, thats fine. Maybe you can try it for yourself? Just be aware that (in my experience) there will be an intense "pressure" pulling you away from what you're trying to do and you may have to try pretty hard to resist it.

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