This then begs the question where these new substances stand. Are they barely more than caffeine and mostly harmless? Is maybe the placebo effect playing a role in making them appear more effective to the user than they truly are? But if they do have a significant effect, at what price does it come? The human body needs rest, that is a pretty well-established fact. It seems unlikely that these substances would be able to change this fundamental principle. What does seem likely, if they indeed are effective, is that you are buying more alertness for the moment, but paying for it in the long run.
Normally substances are researched and tested by professionals for years and sometimes decades before declared safe. But even that process is not always perfect and substances with harmful side effects have been known to slip through. Potentially turning yourself into a human vegetable a couple of decades down the road by experimenting with these barely understood substances seems like a dangerous proposition.
Caffeine of course is still #1 for me in terms of efficacy. I'm not desperate enough to use harder stimulants like ephedrines or amphetamines or phenethylamines etc.
There's definitely legal amphetamines, non-amphetamine stimulants (modafanil, methylphenidate if you want to put it there), and lots of literature statistics about what is and isn't a dose which can perform harm, and often a classification for the older drugs as GRAS. There's things which may behave like a stimulant or can replace a stimulant, but aren't really stimulants (bupropion, atomoxetine).
If you're talking about Meth, well, then, yeah. It's illegal and often harmful. It's also not likely to be pure.
For the most part, anything which people consider a performance enhancing brain drug has probably been used or posited as a treatment for ADHD or Narcolepsy. It's often a stimulant or a reuptake inhibitor, usually relating to dopamine in some way. There's a ton of FDA-approved drugs out there that meet this description.
As someone who's taken it a couple times, didn't get much out of it, and is now amazed he didn't end up in serious trouble: stay the hell away from Phenibut. Or, don't take my word for it: Google for "phenibut withdrawal".
Remember kids, if you want a really good placebo experience, buy the good shit.
Basically, for best results you want to receive your medicine as the Star Patient in a Very Important Looking Medical Drama right at the moment where Everything Starts Getting Better.
Edit: Ooh. Apparently bacopa has real effects shown in double-blind RCTs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nootropic#Availability_and_pre...
The problem with studying these supplements is not everyone reacts the same way to them and things like diet and sleep tend to have a dramatic effect on what works and how well.
I previously looked at sourcing modafinil but ultimately decided against it due the the sources available looking dodgy, a lack of clarity in the laws around it, etc. As more reputable companies emerge in the sector I think I may well end up giving the products a go.
I don't think Adderall/Strattera/Concerta/Ritalin/etc is as effective on those without ADHD as you're implying it is, and those who actually have ADHD (myself included) are not better at a job just because of the supplement. Remember that the drugs wear off, and those hours unmedicated can kill productivity in other ways from constantly being distracted - disorganization, forgetfulness, procrastination (not don't feel like it, think depression), inability to stop multitasking (this can really kill), ignoring details, impatience,... i could go on.
> As more reputable companies emerge in the sector I think I may well end up giving the products a go
Do you really need to though? There's no free lunch; these supplements are going to have side effects. Using baseball as an analogy here, if you're on a major league team getting millions to push your body for the few years you can keep up, i can see the draw of steroids. But if you're in the minors, why entertain the idea of anything other than basic nutrition, exercise, and a good night's sleep?
It straight up does improve memory:
I don't think Adderall would really give ADHD suffers an advantage. It might bring them close to the level of others, but Adderall has its own effects, and ADHD isn't going to be completely eliminated by it.
I'm not an ADHD sufferer myself, but from what I understand, Adderall is used to help cope with the condition by giving you improved concentration for a while. It doesn't eliminate it.
The effect is that it doesn't improve concentration so much as it allows concentration in the first place.
If you're a profit-maximizing employer, would you rather hire the person who performs better today, or the person who is looking out for their own long-term safety? Or if you're a startup founder competing against a bunch of doped up super-brains, how strong must the incentive be to join the dark side?
I see similarities with professional sports, where athletic associations are always playing Whac-A-Mole with performance enhancing drugs, and top earning athletes routinely get chastised for doping. Should we expect outcomes in knowledge work to be different if brain hacking proves as effective?
I'm not an American but from what I was taught about folks like Ben Franklin, I think they'd be shocked to know it has become illegal to determine your own treatment.
So I don't know if you can just couch it in terms of personal freedoms... it seems a bit more complicated than that. I don't know what the answer is, but pretty sure it isn't just 'Let people do whatever they want.' At least with heroin and cocaine people have some idea about the risks, even if they decide to ignore them...
With heroin, the biggest risk is the fact it's illegal, thus preventing you from obtaining clean, known-quantity medication. If Tylenol was sold on the streets, with pills ranging from 100mg to 1000mg, we'd have a LOT more liver toxicity cases than we do. It's not like using opiates in a correct manner leads to death on a routine basis.
personally i prefer to dumb myself down with a bit of weed... :)
Obviously this is not a common reaction, and probably very rare with most nootropics. I just want to point out that there are long-tail risks to this. Although many of these agents are probably safe for the majority of the population, creative and ambitious people are likely to be already a high-risk group.
If you're a mathematician or artist or novelist advancing the state of humanity, "enhance" away, and I'll wish you the best in recovery if you get unlucky. If you're a corporate climber and you blow your brain out trying to gain an edge in a zero-sum game, then I have zero sympathy.
Mania can be happy. Or at least a terrible funfuck of a ride while it lasts. At least for the person experiencing it. If they don't have to deal with all the consequences.
I was also self-medicating for Open Plan Syndrome (often a precursor to full-blown Panic Disorder, as it was for me, and not uncommon in tech) so the reason why I was using it (in such absurdly high doses) may be a contributor to the fucked-up-ness.
