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Notes from the SF peptide scene

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Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#141

Post by treebeard901 »

kelnos wrote: post #85
chromacity wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you edited your post, but I'm actually taken aback by people trying to argue it's a blog, not "journalism". I see no real difference between this and some of the most celebrated pieces of gonzo journalism. However, this cuts both ways. This format is how we get some of the most interesting pieces of reporting about culture and counterculture. It's someone who went to some parties or worked for some companies.…

> The SF Bay Area culture is probably not a thing Exactly. Even if we restrict it down to the million or so people who live and/or work in SF, there are so many different cultures and subcultures that it's impossible to generalize down to any specific culture. This is true of any medium- or large-sized city. > but there are some pretty awful subcultures within it [...] I think we should own it. Sure, but again, the s…

San Francisco seems, after only living here two years, to be a city kind of in a cold war with itself. I think the Broligarch Tech crowd is fighting with the progressives and in many ways the progressives are losing and do not realize it. I am not using these terms in their strict political meaning either. Much more extended to cultural aspects. I know it is also much more than just those two subcultures but they are the two most dominate.

Makes me wish I could've experienced the 1960s San Francisco or even the 90s SF. Tech and tech money just rots the soul of an area.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#142

Post by rexpop »

operatingthetan wrote: post #108
Barrin92 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No, it's really a form of sincerity permitted by a sort of willfully affected naivete The willful part turns the sincerity into nihilism, people who utter sentences like: "I could fill a notebook of quotes from this conversation. “They change your personality, it’s literally made me less shallow knowing that we can just looksmax you.” “Ugliness is just a choice now.” “I shot up a twink with ozempic who did not need…

I'm a bit confused why we are taking the drunk ramblings of people at some party so seriously. Nothing in these sentences is that weird or shocking, it's just people trying to impress each other, or fit in, or learn stuff. A lot of it is probably just made up. Nothing here is very SF-specific, except it sounds like these people use reddit a lot.

> it sounds like these people use reddit

Is giving "guy who's only seen Boss Baby" vibes.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#143

Post by pphysch »

kelnos wrote: post #91
pphysch wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, isn't the entire point of SF startup culture (for the last decade++) to build personal wealth through a successful exit rather than build a sustainable business that benefits society? It's a big speculative con game... Opposite of sincere. Of course we can warp the semantics and argue that these people are "sincere" in their desire to defraud retail investors or something, but that doesn't seem to be the author…

I think this is a form of selection bias. We hear about -- and rage about -- the people you describe here because it's news, and it's outrageous. But there are lots of people with a sincere mission who we don't hear about, because they're quietly working toward their goals. That doesn't say that their goals are worthwhile or that what they're doing is actually good for the world, but they can still sincerely believe…

Sure, this isn't a rigorous study. But it's clear that American society is in decay (specifically: education, science, healthcare, democracy) and meanwhile SV has been busily innovating in adtech/surveillance, miltech, fintech, porn, gambling, recreational drugs, addictive media, disruptive automation... Not that all those are the same type of vice but it's clear where SV priorities lie.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#144

Post by ausbah »

disposablehn wrote: post #53

Good to see the vibe hasn't changed. At least since I lived there in the 1990s, parties with heavy drugs and crazy sex have always been linked with a faction of the tech scene. I moved to the Bay Area in 1990 after graduation to work a corporate job in the valley but quit shortly after meeting a group of eccentrics that ran a small business setting up networks for commercial clients and joined their gig. I was making…

would love to hear more about your experiences at this time! sounds super interesting compared to how corporate tech has become in even the past 5-10 years alone

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#145

Post by JeremyNT »

mh2266 wrote: post #124
EvanAnderson wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in western Ohio and had heard about the peptide fervor on podcasts but never IRL. Today, at my daughter's soccer game, I overheard a long conversation between two guys in their mid-40s comparing their peptide regimens (along with just discussing their fitness activities). I'd never actually heard anybody talk about it before. At first it was the generic CrossFit talk I'm used to hearing, then to diet and recovery…

> It sounded like both of them are injecting themselves from stuff they're buying on the Internet. lol, wtf. I mean, I am a moderately serious cyclist, I guess (~250 miles/week) and also climb, hike, other outdoors sports etc. So I do care about performance and diet and such. But there is zero chance I am sticking a needle full of something I bought on the internet into myself—what on earth?

It's got to be Dunning-Kruger, and I'm convinced chatbots have made it way worse.

A lot of tech bros seem to be of the opinion that, given their superior intellect (as evidenced by their successful careers), they can master any domain. As great as semaglutide is, surely more is possible for people willing to move fast and break things, right?

All they need to do is apply their superior methodology to "biohacking!"

Of course they run it all by SuperGrok to be sure, and when it tells them yes, they are indeed absolutely right, it's off to the races - to discover that fountain of youth by injecting some sketchy grey market snake oil.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#146

Post by bodiekane »

mh2266 wrote: post #124
EvanAnderson wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in western Ohio and had heard about the peptide fervor on podcasts but never IRL. Today, at my daughter's soccer game, I overheard a long conversation between two guys in their mid-40s comparing their peptide regimens (along with just discussing their fitness activities). I'd never actually heard anybody talk about it before. At first it was the generic CrossFit talk I'm used to hearing, then to diet and recovery…

> It sounded like both of them are injecting themselves from stuff they're buying on the Internet. lol, wtf. I mean, I am a moderately serious cyclist, I guess (~250 miles/week) and also climb, hike, other outdoors sports etc. So I do care about performance and diet and such. But there is zero chance I am sticking a needle full of something I bought on the internet into myself—what on earth?

Cycling has a pretty rich history of people injecting themselves with things they bought on the internet- EPO, testosterone, etc.

The bodybuilding subculture has been injecting testosterone, about 50 different testosterone-like drugs (Tren, Clen, Deca, etc) for the past 50 years, HGH for the past 30 years and IGF for the past 15 years.

The psychonaut subculture has been buying research chemical derivatives of serotonin and dopamine for decades for their psychedelic effects, and the nootropic community doing similar things for compounds that increased attention, memory or mood.

In prior decades, the transgender community often relied on buying & injecting drugs on the internet for gender affirming care they were unable to get from their healthcare systems.

There are risks, but also, if tens, hundreds or thousands of other customers have purchased and used something from the vendor, that's probably as reliable of a signal as most regulatory regimes are.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#148

Post by trashface »

trogdor wrote: post #127
JuniperMesos wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The health problems associated with obesity are very real (not to mention that it makes you look worse), GLP-1 agonists really do work for most people to cause significant weight loss, and it's currently difficult to get them prescribed by a legitimate doctor unless your obesity-related health problems are really severe. This will probably change over the next several years, but in the meantime buying them from a gre…

> it's currently difficult to get them prescribed by a legitimate doctor unless your obesity-related health problems are really severe I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s difficult to get them covered by insurance unless your obesity-related health problems are really severe. In my experience, doctors have no problem prescribing GLP-1 drugs for weight management.

If you aren't significantly overweight a doc won't want to prescribe a GLP-1. Because if you die while on it for any reason, and your family sues, the expert witness will testify that a GLP-1 wasn't standard of care for a patient with your presentation. Then the doc's insurance loses the case (and he pays way more going forward assuming he can practice at all).

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#149

Post by JuniperMesos »

trashface wrote: post #148
trogdor wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's currently difficult to get them prescribed by a legitimate doctor unless your obesity-related health problems are really severe I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s difficult to get them covered by insurance unless your obesity-related health problems are really severe. In my experience, doctors have no problem prescribing GLP-1 drugs for weight management.

If you aren't significantly overweight a doc won't want to prescribe a GLP-1. Because if you die while on it for any reason, and your family sues, the expert witness will testify that a GLP-1 wasn't standard of care for a patient with your presentation. Then the doc's insurance loses the case (and he pays way more going forward assuming he can practice at all).

This is an argument that the litigiousness of American society incentivizes suboptimal health outcomes from the legitimate health care system because the employees of that system need to legally protect themselves; therefore a person might be better off if they go outside that health care system and buy grey-market Chinese pharmacy peptides labeled not for human use.

Re: Notes from the SF peptide scene

#150

Post by hx8 »

sroussey wrote: post #68
mh2266 wrote: post #50

WTF is any of this, is there some ELI5/OOTL explanation? I work in big tech and have never heard anyone talk about "peptides". Is this a startup scene thing or just an SF thing? (I live in New York) all of my coworkers are pretty normal, sure there are the stereotypical fitness types that are marathon training, cycling, or have a climbing gym membership but no one is talking about buying weird Chinese drugs

Wegovy/Ozempic (semaglutide), Zepbound/Monjourno (trizepitide), etc are the GPL-1 drugs sold today for diabetes and weight loss. Technically they are peptides. So if people you know have "finally" lost a lot of weight, they are likely on peptides. Peptide manufacture is not as difficult as other drugs because they are injected. Because the brand names cost a lot, and their manufacture is not too difficult, obviously…

There is also the classic network effect of someone saying "Wow you look great, did you lose any weight?" "I lost a lot of weight using this gray market drug that is way cheaper and more effective than the FDA approved stuff."
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