Ask HN: Thoughts on performance-enhancing drugs?

Re:Ask HN: Thoughts on performance-enhancing drugs? by silentbicycle on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @08:51AM (#660058)

This question seems to come up periodically here.

I wouldn't even consider nootropics until you're already getting plenty of sleep, eating well, exercising regularly, and not using too much caffeine or alcohol. Those things have a much bigger impact on your state of mind. Nootropics are attractive in part because they represent the dream of sharpening your focus without all that boring lifestyle stuff.

Piracetam is cheap, studied (at least compared to the rest...), and doesn't have any particularly bad side effects. If you're going to take anything, that might be a better place to start than amphetamines (!) such as adderall. Of course, I'm not a doctor, but I doubt you are, either.

I've had the best results with green tea (which includes l-theanine) and getting enough sleep, FWIW. (Also, meditation helps.)

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Re:Ask HN: Thoughts on performance-enhancing drugs? by clicks on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @02:26PM (#660619)

Then it's settled. Just having read all of the comments made, I'm happy to see that there is somewhat of a consensus here- along the lines of what you yourself said: "I wouldn't even consider nootropics until you're already getting plenty of sleep, eating well, exercising regularly, and not using too much caffeine or alcohol" - I don't get a lot of sleep (haven't been getting it for the last 6 or so years, averaging in at 5-6 hours/day), my eating habits have been unhealthy since my childhood, I never exercise (I'm extremely thin despite of that), and I have been drinking British/Indian tea (with lots of sugar and milk) probably in what's considered an 'excess amount' since my earliest memory (but no alcohol, weed, or Halo :)).

I'll try my darnedest in the forthcoming semester to have better sleeping/eating/exercising habits. Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply. (I was thinking to add a few more details to my questions and replies that I think are unique in my case, i.e., I hail from a third-world country, the first time I attended school was in America at the age of 12, and I have severe social anxiety, which, very strangely, I trace back to having conflicts in living in a multi-cultural family - but I decided not to add these details, since it would make for a disheveled, disorderly discussion). Thanks again everyone. :)

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Re:Ask HN: Thoughts on performance-enhancing drugs? by enedi on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @05:43PM (#660958)

Good luck to you! It wasn't until this past semester that I developed much better sleeping/study habits. Trying to be a superstar with 5 hours of sleep is dumb (unless that's enough for you =P .) Actually being a superstar with as much as sleep as you need is much, much smarter.

Also, this made me chuckle a little bit, just because, coincidentally, this is on the front page: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660720.

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Re:Ask HN: Thoughts on performance-enhancing drugs? by htsh on Tuesday June 16, 2009 @10:21AM (#660205)

Agree completely. The catch-22 here is that if you're not getting good sleep as it is, Adderall is most certainly not going to help. And not sleeping over time has some pretty hefty consequences.

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