Turn On, Tune In, Start Up

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: August 24, 2018 at 5:50:08 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Turn On, Tune In, Start Up
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Turn On, Tune In, Start Up
> How — and why — Silicon Valley is getting high.
> By Kara Swisher
> Aug 23 2018
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/opinion/elon-musk-burning-man-drugs-lsd.html>
>
> Over the last year, at lunches with various Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, I have been offered: Several chances to 
> microdose on LSD (pass!); at least four suggestions that magic mushrooms will help me become a better reporter 
> (maybe); three declarations that Ecstasy will make me a nicer person (doubt it); and now that it is legal in 
> California, weed, weed and more weed in every conceivable delivery method (yum, gummy bears!).
>
> And, of course, ayahuasca, a brew made from plants that includes the hallucinogen DMT. The well-known tech exec (who, 
> like most people for this article, asked not to be named, for obvious reasons) who urged me to try it with him was 
> nearly ecstatic on the subject. “It is the thing to reach the next level of innovation,” he said. “And you don’t 
> throw up that much.”
>
> He had me until vomiting. Thanks, but no thanks. 
>
> Last week The New York Times reported that some on the board of Tesla were worried that the company’s founder and 
> chief executive, Elon Musk, “has on occasion used recreational drugs.” Some were blaming a series of his 
> ill-conceived and possibly actionable tweets on the possible use of Ambien. 
>
> Now Burning Man, the annual gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, is about to begin. Techies and many others will 
> flock there to look at art, dress in costumes, burn things and perhaps discover the next great start-up idea with the 
> help of a tiny bit of ketamine. 
>
> This confluence of events made me curious about what is actually going on when it comes to drugs in the tech world 
> these days. While the use of mind-altering substances here is nothing new, I spoke to just over a dozen people who 
> all said consumption was increasing once again. Obviously, there are major problems with addiction to opiates and 
> alcohol here, as elsewhere. But people in Silicon Valley tend to view drugs differently from those in places like, 
> say, Hollywood and Wall Street. The point is less to let off steam or lose your inhibitions than to improve your mind.
>
> “No one can afford to lose a step here anymore, so they want to hack the experience to make it work for their 
> time-constrained schedules,” said one techie. “You want to be super lucid now.”
>
> Another tech executive compares it to what Bradley Cooper did in the movie “Limitless,” about a man who uses a 
> mystery drug to become much smarter than anyone else. “It was a terrible movie, but the idea of a having a heightened 
> sense of awareness and also being totally functional appeals to people now,” he said. “Whatever can get you to that 
> place without a lot of downside — like addiction — is preferred.”
>
> That is why everyone he knows microdoses, saving the longer-acting drugs like Ecstasy for the rare occasions when 
> they want to party and relax. As always, Adderall is often used to plow through work.
>
> And marijuana, he told me, had become more like drinking a glass of wine, noting that he sees people openly vaping at 
> tech events. Why? “No one does a stupid tweet on weed like they might on alcohol,” he said. “The most that happens is 
> that you get lazy and eat badly.”
>
> It is all, another tech worker said, about the “intellectualizing of drug use as a stimulant for the brain.”
>
> Michael Pollan, whose recent book, “How to Change Your Mind,” talks about the resurgence of psychedelic drugs, told 
> me in an interview that the exploration of drugs by tech workers remains part of the industry’s “hacking ethos.”
>
> In a podcast I did with him in May, Mr. Pollan traced the trend back to the 1950s, when a group of engineers at the 
> electronics company AMPEX got involved with Al Hubbard, the “Johnny Appleseed of LSD.” He convinced them its use 
> would make their jobs easier and wanted to try out this premise on the “best and brightest and have the wisdom 
> trickle down to the populace.”
>
> “Scientists answer specific questions, but engineers deal with complex irreducible variables that you need to find 
> patterns in,” Mr. Pollan said. “LSD helps with that.”
>
> [snip]
>
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> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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