How do stimulants affect your ability to update or change your mind? @johnswentworth and I are debating stimulant usage in an unpublished dialogue, and one crux is how stimulants affect one’s ability to update.
People who have used stimulants, please percent-emoji with how they affect your ability to update- <1% for “completely trashed”, 50% for neutral, >99% for “huge improvement”. Comments with additional details are welcome.
I’ve got a bunch of meditation under my belt so my metacognitive awareness is quite good imo.
Stimulants that are attention increasing such as caffiene or modafinil generally lead to more tunnelvision and less metacognitive awareness in my experience. This generally leads to less ability to update opinions quickly.
Nicotine that activates acetylcholine receptors allow for more curiosity which allow me to update more quickly so it is dependent on the stimulant as well as the generak timing. (0.6mg in gum form, too high spike just leads to a hit and not curiosity). It is like being more sensitive and interested in whatever appears around me
If you’re sensitive enough you can start recognizing when different mental modes are firing in your brain and adapt based on what you want, shit is pretty cool.
I haven’t really explicitly checked this. I only use caffeine and (questionably counting) wellbutrin. I’ll keep an eye out, especially if there’s particular evidence about something to look out for.
I have observed people on modafinil who seem to get more tunnel visioned and have a harder time reorienting but I haven’t used it myself.
Epistemic belief updating: Not noticeably different.
Task stickiness: Massively increased, but I believe this is improvement (at baseline my task stickiness is too low so the change is in the right direction).
(important note: I have a severe depression characterized by low motivation/energy and resistance to treatment)
I take relatively frequently moderate doses of amphetamine-class stimulants, which gives me more cognitive bandwidth to work with. As such it’s much easier for me to thoroughly examine a belief and update based on that examination, as it takes motivation/energy to do that in my case.
I drink about 400mg of caffeine daily through coffee and Coke Zero. It helps me process complex ideas quickly, consider alternatives, and lifts my mood.
Without it, I get frustrated when I can’t follow arguments or understand ideas, often rejecting them or settling for “good enough.” Caffeine gives me the clarity and energy to stay open to new ideas and better solutions.
I feel like this is a double-edged sword situation. Stimulants do make you more focused and obsessive, but on a smaller scale, they make me less likely to adapt. For example, it becomes much harder to change my daily priorities when necessary. On the other hand, they allow me to engage with arguments far more deeply than I would otherwise be able to, which has led to a few significantly larger updates over time.
How do stimulants affect your ability to update or change your mind? @johnswentworth and I are debating stimulant usage in an unpublished dialogue, and one crux is how stimulants affect one’s ability to update.
People who have used stimulants, please percent-emoji with how they affect your ability to update- <1% for “completely trashed”, 50% for neutral, >99% for “huge improvement”. Comments with additional details are welcome.
I’ve got a bunch of meditation under my belt so my metacognitive awareness is quite good imo.
Stimulants that are attention increasing such as caffiene or modafinil generally lead to more tunnelvision and less metacognitive awareness in my experience. This generally leads to less ability to update opinions quickly.
Nicotine that activates acetylcholine receptors allow for more curiosity which allow me to update more quickly so it is dependent on the stimulant as well as the generak timing. (0.6mg in gum form, too high spike just leads to a hit and not curiosity). It is like being more sensitive and interested in whatever appears around me
If you’re sensitive enough you can start recognizing when different mental modes are firing in your brain and adapt based on what you want, shit is pretty cool.
I haven’t really explicitly checked this. I only use caffeine and (questionably counting) wellbutrin. I’ll keep an eye out, especially if there’s particular evidence about something to look out for.
I have observed people on modafinil who seem to get more tunnel visioned and have a harder time reorienting but I haven’t used it myself.
Epistemic belief updating: Not noticeably different.
Task stickiness: Massively increased, but I believe this is improvement (at baseline my task stickiness is too low so the change is in the right direction).
(important note: I have a severe depression characterized by low motivation/energy and resistance to treatment)
I take relatively frequently moderate doses of amphetamine-class stimulants, which gives me more cognitive bandwidth to work with. As such it’s much easier for me to thoroughly examine a belief and update based on that examination, as it takes motivation/energy to do that in my case.
I drink about 400mg of caffeine daily through coffee and Coke Zero. It helps me process complex ideas quickly, consider alternatives, and lifts my mood.
Without it, I get frustrated when I can’t follow arguments or understand ideas, often rejecting them or settling for “good enough.” Caffeine gives me the clarity and energy to stay open to new ideas and better solutions.
I feel like this is a double-edged sword situation. Stimulants do make you more focused and obsessive, but on a smaller scale, they make me less likely to adapt. For example, it becomes much harder to change my daily priorities when necessary. On the other hand, they allow me to engage with arguments far more deeply than I would otherwise be able to, which has led to a few significantly larger updates over time.