Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come on, you can’t honestly say Adderall has no side effects.
What are its side effects?
short term? nothing.
long term? stomach ulcers.
Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
61–70 of 83 posts
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#62But do they help you learn?
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#63I think this is something well-known among high-achievers at school, but I knew some people at school who would just spend 36 hours straight doing all their assignments and still get bad marks. It was always this way for me: work for a few hours, take a break, (maybe a walk, chat with friends/roommates), make some (healthy) food, then get back to it. Staying up never helps, because you have to sleep anyway, and getti…
I've always been a sort of lazy high achiever and very puzzled about this. I was always a near-top (but not top) student in schools, got a PhD and am now working in a high paying job in a bank. Besides one or two years during my university years, I've always been extremely lazy. On the other hand, in all of these institutions there have been many people who have been very serious hard workers and perhaps even at the…
I think a lot boils down to motivation as well.
I was kind of lazy in my studies, and hated being teached several times the same things and most of the stuff we were doing was mostly theoric. Once I ended up in the workplace it felt to me my actual work had more value and I naturally put more energy to it and got more successes. And the same thing happen between different kind of companies. When I work for private companies whose products/services do not mean anything to me and where I feel the main goal is to satisfy shareholders, I have less motivation and energy than for instance when I was working for a public hospital. Some people don't care and their ultimate reward is the paycheck, some people want their work to have a meaning and a real value.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#64I think this is something well-known among high-achievers at school, but I knew some people at school who would just spend 36 hours straight doing all their assignments and still get bad marks. It was always this way for me: work for a few hours, take a break, (maybe a walk, chat with friends/roommates), make some (healthy) food, then get back to it. Staying up never helps, because you have to sleep anyway, and getti…
I've always been a sort of lazy high achiever and very puzzled about this. I was always a near-top (but not top) student in schools, got a PhD and am now working in a high paying job in a bank. Besides one or two years during my university years, I've always been extremely lazy. On the other hand, in all of these institutions there have been many people who have been very serious hard workers and perhaps even at the…
I want to echo this because you had other replies agreeing and I feel that my anecdotal experience of this might actually have meaning. I was extremely lazy through school and college and was usually at or near the top of every class until I hit some point where lazy could no longer cut it. But that just narrowed subjects down until I was able to be very lazy at uni and still do well. If I hadn't had a couple of incidents (bike accident and unrelated health issue) I probably would have scored a higher degree and been motivated to stay in academia. In work I feel like I've drifted into roles that are fantastic compared to my friends at school + uni who worked really hard, and I expected the opposite to happen.
The moment that comes back to me particularly is when I visited a friend who was doing an astrophysics degree at another uni in their 2nd year. I attended the lectures with her and my casual knowledge from reading on the subject had covered what they were learning. I thought it was interesting and followed along just fine. Talking with her and her group of friends afterwards, they were really struggling. Thing is, although she was a really hard worker, she didn't have much interest in the subject. She just chose it because she did well in physics at school. She only did OK, so a middling degree in astrophysics setting up well for a career in admin.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#65I want to preface this by saying that I am not a supporter of study drugs, except for caffeine. I don't find these studies to be convincing. You give people a pill, they don't know what it is. These people don't know what to expect, they've never taken study drugs before. They're solving some random logic puzzle they've never seen before. "Participants had to work out which items to put into a bag." Compare to how th…
> I think that could be a great boon to society.
Provided it uses all that additional brainpower effectively. Can we honestly say that currently all the smart people are realising their potential?
Also, could well be a curse instead. Imagine society only performing this well thanks to a steady supply of the stuff.
Actually, we already have that in the form of fossil fuels and while they enabled massive progress, their supply hinges on authoritarians having their way in some corners of the world.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#66I think this is something well-known among high-achievers at school, but I knew some people at school who would just spend 36 hours straight doing all their assignments and still get bad marks. It was always this way for me: work for a few hours, take a break, (maybe a walk, chat with friends/roommates), make some (healthy) food, then get back to it. Staying up never helps, because you have to sleep anyway, and getti…
Something you learn from your parents, maybe?
I grew up poor and didn't have access to parents, so I had to figure out things on my own, by trial and error, unfortunately. And, it took me 40 years to figure out that basic lifestyle improvements could help a lot.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#67Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're essentially proposing that people have to learn how to do tasks in a new way when using study drugs. That's a very far-fetched claim. Do you have any evidence other than personal anecdotes? It doesn't fit with anything I've ever read or experienced with these drugs.
Sure. Tolerance builds up over extended use, so that’s one avenue. Another is knowing what causes bodily sensations. High caffeine for example can easily to nervousness if participants don’t know they got caffeine. Drugs like Ritalin can cause euphoria the first couple of times you use it. Ever drank alcohol? You have to learn to deal with that, the first time you’re drunk you are very different from the second time.…
So I shouldn't buy into psychological research, but I should buy into a single person's theories with a sample size of zero and (I'm guessing) no pharmacological education?
I've had alcohol many times, and you know what it's nothing like? Ritalin.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe one day we will get a drug that enhances mental function, that works effectively and has no real downsides Coffee. And to your main point, if you took people who’d never drink coffee before and gave them a caffeine pill, guaranteed they’d perform worse.
Coffee has some very real downsides. Ironically to the GP’s point though, Adderall is like a super mega coffee without those downsides.
What downsides? I think it varies per person— but it’s a pretty ideal substance.
Re: Study drugs make people worse at problem solving, not better
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
We all project/assume based on the bubble we live in. In my 18 years of in-house software dev experience (several countries, companies of different sizes), not once have I even heard (in the real world, not online) of people using any sort of drugs like the ones mentioned in the article. I'm not saying that you're wrong. But based on my personal experience, I also could bet the opposite of what you're saying and feel…
I assume, like myself, most people taking them don't talk to their coworkers about it. Doubly so if they're taking them illegally
I know some people who take party drugs. I know alcoholics. But coworkers who routinely take performance enhancing drugs other than caffeine at work, not one.
I guess it depends on your environment. Silicon Valley seems particularly prone to it.