A society that runs on stimulants is badly broken(www.currentaffairs.org)
38 pointsby pmg1016 hours ago5 comments
  • jollyllama6 hours ago
    Hasn't it been that way for at least a few hundred years? I'm surprised the article didn't mention the OG stimulant, tobacco.
    • theokrueger5 hours ago
      coffee houses (previously a threat to the monarchy) would buckle at their knees in front of the dose in caffiene pills or energy drinks

      even tobacco has turned to vaping to deliver more nicotine quicker

    • homer4565 hours ago
      Sometimes I wonder if coffee is responsible for modernity.
      • mapontoseventhsan hour ago
        It literally is. Technologists are all the degenerate intellectual children of Voltaire - who famously drank 40-50 cups of coffee per day.
    • BiraIgnacio2 hours ago
      Perhaps since the beginning of what we came to call society.
      • nitwit0052 hours ago
        Even animals will do things like get drunk on fermented fruit. Humans just figured out how to get a regular supply.
      • hoppp2 hours ago
        The romans had society. No tobacco or coffee
  • ElijahLynn3 hours ago
    I hypothesize that most of the stimulant use is actually due to poor sleep hygiene and jacked circadian rhythms, because of electricity and lighting on-demand.

    And trauma, of course.

  • deepc4life6 hours ago
    I don't know how we do it. I am much more clearheaded without coffee or anything of the sorts.
    • RevEng27 minutes ago
      There's a fine line, as with alcohol. A single cup of tea might feel refreshing. A monster energy drink is going to feel like a fight or flight response. Some people are also more sensitive than others and some are addicted more really than others.
    • hoppp2 hours ago
      Its an addiction, just like a lot of things.
  • throwitaway2226 hours ago
    I was on a prescribed stimulant for 6 months. It was nice for work, but it ended up with too many side effects that kind of mess with ones head. It tends to "simplify" complex decision making processes and not just for code but for life decisions.
    • copperx6 hours ago
      Simplifying decisions can be a positive outcome, just to add balance to your comment.
    • suburban_strike5 hours ago
      > It tends to "simplify" complex decision making processes and not just for code but for life decisions.

      Improving executive function is literally the point of prescription stimulants.

      Rather than endless spirals about whether you should do ___, it just makes everything sound like a great idea to you...for better or for worse.

      Cocaine has the same effect, only amplified.

  • Barrin924 hours ago
    I do find the economics / work narrative relatively unconvincing. For one workload in the developed world has fallen by about 40-50% over the last 100 years. Consuming stimulants is as popular among call it the 'lazy bum class' (no offense, I grew up in a deadbeat town) as it is among strivers. Coffee goes back five thousand years, Nicotine as far as recorded history, that is 10k+ years.

    They've always had recreational or even ritual use, and the health fads against stimulants and cleansing crazes usually come from the work-obsessed than anyone else. So I don't think that we run on stimulants, I'm pretty sure we'd do them regardless.