Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

news.uark.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 208 posts

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#21

Post by snarf21 »

ihuman wrote: post #7
UtMan88 wrote: post #2

At Game Jams I would always start things off with my "2 beers, 2 coffees" method. After the theme was announced, we'd go out and discuss ideas over a few beers (just not enough to get trashed), then, come back, flesh stuff out, get our coffee and go back to work. Worked out pretty well for generating some pretty wild ideas while not making ourselves disfunctional. Drink responsibly.

> not enough to get trashed But enough to reach the Ballmer Peak? https://xkcd.com/323/

Yeah, just enough to slow your brain down and you slide right into flow.

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#23

Post by dacohenii »

Thank you for linking to the paper.

The study measures the effects of regular caffeine users:

> Participants were invited to participate if they were between 18-35 years of age, consumed between 1-2 cups of caffeinated beverages per day at least 5 days a week, did not smoke, were native English speakers, and took no psychiatric medications or painkillers on a regular basis. > [...] > Participants were asked to abstain from any caffeinated or alcoholic beverages from 4 pm on the day prior to the session.

I recently listened to Michael Pollan's Caffeine [0], which was on Audible's free monthly audiobook list recently. He argues (and I'm inclined to agree) that if you are a daily caffeine consumer, your daily cup of coffee does less in the way of cognitive enhancement, and more in the way of getting you back to your baseline (i.e. preventing caffeine withdrawal).

With this in mind, I think the study could be improved by having subjects who started off completely off caffeine for a few weeks. That way, we'd be more certain that the control group isn't going through caffeine withdrawal, and that the effect of caffeine isn't decreased by tolerance.

[0] https://www.audible.com/pd/Caffeine-Audiobook/B083MVZ91Y [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22503948

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#24

Post by travisjungroth »

aganame wrote: post #22

Someone oughta research the differences between coffee and other caffeinated drinks. My experience says that there are huge differences there.

It’s the different caffeine dose plus all the other chemicals. L-theanine in green tea, for example. I think I’ve seen some research on the difference between green tea and coffee somewhere.

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#25

Post by ipnon »

pgt wrote: post #12
k__ wrote: post #5

What boosts creativity? I sometimes used alcohol for song writing purposes. Are there healthier methods?

Small doses of psilocybin seems to work wonders.

Is there any scientific evidence? It could be that microdosers are subconsciously thinking, "I want to be more creative today," when they decide to do the drugs. Any creativity after that point would be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#26

Post by aganame »

travisjungroth wrote: post #24
aganame wrote: post #22

Someone oughta research the differences between coffee and other caffeinated drinks. My experience says that there are huge differences there.

It’s the different caffeine dose plus all the other chemicals. L-theanine in green tea, for example. I think I’ve seen some research on the difference between green tea and coffee somewhere.

Sure, but the effects of coffee against the digestive system are entirely different from tea. That supposedly has some psychological effects.

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#28

Post by travisjungroth »

aganame wrote: post #26
travisjungroth wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the different caffeine dose plus all the other chemicals. L-theanine in green tea, for example. I think I’ve seen some research on the difference between green tea and coffee somewhere.

Sure, but the effects of coffee against the digestive system are entirely different from tea. That supposedly has some psychological effects.

Oh good point.

Re: Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity, study indicates

#30

Post by throwsprtsdy »

flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #14

I would have thought that problem solving abilities necessitated creativity? If the solution was obvious, where's the problem?

Anecdotally, I was recently cramming a lot of "Leetcode medium" questions to prepare for job interviews, and after a couple of weeks, I was drinking Starbuck's coffee and solving those problems like a machine... seriously, like a machine.

I found I did get better (or at least much faster) at recognizing subproblems and quickly composing an overall solution, even if none of the steps was particularly creative.

After about 3 weeks I had to ditch the coffee, I was getting too addled.

(Not a controlled experiment, of course, just conveying my impression of the experience).

Post reply on HN