Comment by jeffbr13 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeffbr13 | Hacker News Reader

I've been using nicotine on-and-off, after reading up on Gwern's self-experimentation[1], in order to moderate my caffeine dependency.

I would probably use other chemicals, if the cost-benefit balance was good enough:

1. Easy to acquire - even nicotine gum is a bother to buy, compared to the various teas, coffees, colas, or caffeine drinks within a few metres of my desk.

2. Valuable - there would need to be a positive economic benefit, otherwise it would be a recreational chemical.

To think like an economist, the 'positive economic benefit' would provide $-amounts for:

3. Quality of Life costs - a smart-drug which affects your sex-life (e.g. Adderall) or causes me to lose focus on my health will have a high negative value.

4. Long-term Health costs - similar to above, except this is more of an expected-cost for (the likelihood of it causing long-term health issues) * (the negative value of those health issues). Not usually very high, but as the article mentions, not many of these drugs have had conclusive efficacy trials, never mind long-term studies of their effects. This one really depend on your personal risk-aversion.

[1]: http://www.gwern.net/Nicotine

Ditto here on what you've been doing. Caffeine modulation (I alternate month intervals btw caffeine and nicotine gum).

I have a preference for well understood/studied chemicals now. Previous experiments with narcotics and pharmaceuticals were helpful in understanding dependence/addiction, mysticism, and enlightenment. Those experiments only revealed that most effects are aberrations and the cost+risk+utility of these is a net loss for me. I encourage people to experience this and have offered guidance on managing it - definitely do not try specific ones if you have ever had a notion of dependence or inability to control things like alcohol, smoking, etc. Addiction is not the goal and almost always is a net loss, so be aware of yourself and don't take foolish risks.

My experiments have so far led to net positive, but I am only now about to begin sleep modulation since I have baselines for the chemical experiments.

Basically, balanced nutrition to meet your needs for exercise and productive knowledge and skill acquisition (and relationship building) are foundational. Then start testing augmentation. Keep logs/journals and be open about it with nurturing people around you who understand your life goals, etc. You can also consider your various relationships as variables, so be careful when and how you enter, and alter, relationships while you journey. You need to be able to extricate yourself when you see losses not in line with your larger goals. Developing codependent relationships AND addictions is a dark road.

All this sounds great, and I've considered doing the whole quantified self thing, but aside from a massive helping of motivation, how do you go about keeping track of all the data?

Are there any good data-entry applications, or do you just note the data down and transcribe it into a spreadsheet later?

On #2, the line between recreational and having a positive economic benefit is rather blurry. Many people take drugs to expand their mind or to work through psychological problems which can definitely give a positive economic benefit. Some people just take it to have fun, but some people only take them to help out a problem.

True, but I think that I parse "performance-enhancing" as being to do with immediate on-the-job performance.

If we're talking about the benefits of a drug for any purpose though, you could put recreational use under (3) and medicinal use under (4).

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