Comment by nakedrobot2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nakedrobot2 | Hacker News Reader

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I certainly wouldn't like to suggest that drugs are the answer to everything, but they are the answer to some things...

In this case, the author might be interested in smoking a HUGE JOINT and stepping into his office. He might find the same sense of curiosity as the five year-old. Magic mushrooms could also do this, but, like the five year-old for the day, might be a bit "more than you bargained for".

Note: just as it's not a good idea for a five year-old to run a company, it is also not advisable to run a company while stoned/drunk/etc.

Being curious and thoughtful is not the same thing as being stoned.

The point is not just the endless asking of questions, but rather not skipping the analysis of things you take for granted (or don't even realize you take for granted).

The point is not to be a 5 year old, the point is to ask questions like a 5 year old and use that to better inform how you act.

I beg to differ. Drugs, specifically the hallucinogenic types (and for this case I am also including marijuana in that category) or meditation (for the more enterprising and diligent) are the easiest way to extract yourself from the tunnel vision with which you see the world.

In fact, I think most (say) 50 year old people who are "set in their ways" would find it VERY difficult to see the world with "new eyes" without some very strong outside stimulus, whether it is drugs, meditation, or some traumatic event.

"(and for this case I am also including marijuana in that category)"

Really?

I've noticed weed makes a lot of people incurious and just sort of drift through things.

It's funny how important perspective is. They seem incurious because everything is going on in their head. I'll say without thinking twice that ganja tends to make you less observant of the fine details of all of your surroundings (which would be overwhelming at times otherwise) but instead makes you focus on very specific things.

There have been some studies that show a huge spike in activity in the frontal lobe during the onset of cannabis effects. It's been suggested this contributes to interesting time effects noted by smokers, especially inexperienced ones: So much thought occurs compared to regular activity that passage of time seems to slow significantly.

I don't believe this, having observed it first hand on many occasions.

Indica vs Sativa.

Seriously?

I have severe doubts that that makes as much difference as... well anything.

It's like whisky drunk vs. beer drunk, they're different because of the speed you take them in, their concentration absorption speeds and a variety of subjective feelings.

Now I know it's a little more complicated than the ethanol picture, with a variety of active compounds in different quantities, but I am very skeptical that a different strain of the plant can make the change from 'stumbling through life apathetically' to 'deep psychedelic self-realisation'.

Not that I'm convinced deep psychedelic self-realisation is much other than brainfart either.

Admittedly I'm not swimming in data. So it could certainly be suggestion or selective reporting or whatever else.

All I was really trying to point out was that there are clearly different 'states' of high: introspective (to the point of paranoia), inquisitive, giggly, zoned, etc.

Just as there are different states of drunk: 'tipsy', 'hyper-active', 'depressed', 'blotto', etc.

So just as not everyone who hits a beer bong is going to streak across the quad to the gymnasium, not everyone who gets high is going to necessarily question the universe nor necessarily sit on the couch and watch the world pass by.

You can't gauge marijuana from the actions of a handful of stoners any more than you can gauge alcohol from the actions of a handful of stumbling drunks.

Kind of a moot point when most people are smoking hybrids.

And it's all besides the point anyway. Giving somebody who rarely smokes, or never has smoked, a bowl of hardcore sativa is a really, really stupid idea unless you want to babysit them all night.

It's also weird to pretend that one class of herbal is radically different from another. There are differences, but they get exaggerated.

It was just meant to be shorthand to raise the issue of the different highs. I don't really subscribe to the hard-line distinction; I was just trying to be succinct.

Yea, I was half-way also responding to the top-level comment about "smoke a huge joint!" That could go well or very poorly depending on who's with you and the sort of stuff it is.

AllI have ever heard from a hallucinogenic mind traveler is "we are all connected" or an occasional dreamlike image that is explored by the conscious self later. It's not a replacement for actually experience and thinking about reality.

> smoking a HUGE JOINT

Or a small amount of something half-decent ... a huge joint of that would practically make your eyes bleed.

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