One way to just be able to do more stuff is to take stimulants. I think there are cases where being on them can dent your intelligence in some subtle ways but broadly they can drastically increase your ability to do more, work through when youāre fatigued, etc. Maybe itās still a sufficiently edgy position that you donāt mentioned it here but the absence was interesting. People at college are all taking modafinil for a reason.
I worry that some incredibly ambitious people in the EA world have gone on to pursue paths that have actually been harmful. Early employees at the frontier AI labs seem like the obvious exampleāAnthropic was founded as an āAI safety labā with commitments not to push the frontier but they obviously forgot about that along the way, and it seems hard to justify continuing to work there on capabilities imo. I suspect thereās a lot of motivated reasoning going on among this group. Perhaps itās a cautionary tale about ambition unmoored from reflection as other people point out here, or that if your ambition leads to filthy lucre then itās very hard to course correct later on.
(Agree with the other commenters here that maybe the rate-limiting step isnāt just pushing harder but co-ordination, taking more individual risks, etc)
reposted from my comment on the original Substack article
Are there any guides for how to use stimulants effectively for good? Assuming someone could access pretty much whatever ones they wanted, which ones should they use and how should they go about dosing? Or/āand, what strategy should they use when figuring out what works best for them? e.g. should they try to take a blind random dose and drug and take notes for a while, to pick the best for them? Or start with adderall and slowly increase dosage until they hit diminishing returns, then try modafinil and ramp up dosage till diminishing returns, and repeat for various other ones? Or should they cycle different ones to avoid tolerance?
I know for me caffeine amplifies my energy, but is still unguided and I find myself distracted by the same things but just with more energy and focus. And I know the ācorrectā answer is talk to a medical professional, but I prefer to avoid the medical system as much as possible, and thatās expensive, and anyways how would a medical proffesional approach those questions?
Broadly in order of safety itās probably caffeine > modafinil > amphetamines (Vyvanse, Ritalin, Concerta, dexamphatamine etc). But amphetamines are very commonly prescribed for ADHD/ānarcolepsy (usually with an ECG and occasional blood pressure checks). I think the risk-reward works out very much positively but obviously Iām eliding a lot of detail.
Sweet, that would be really helpful! I recently read gwerns post on modafinil, but found it wasnāt that helpful for understanding the benefits of taking it, or how to use it effectively (dose, schedule, etc) š I tend to get pretty good sleep, and the main takeaway I got from that post was that it mainly lets you need less sleep
Do you have any insight into using psychedelics for good? I know gwerns microdosing lsd test came up negative, and I havenāt found it helpful for me to focus on a job I donāt like even though it pays well (it actually made it worse) so I havenāt tried it since or for something I actually care about (Iām actively looking for a new role that I will care more about, and may pay better). But I know real trips sometimes help me focus for the following week or two. Iām also curious about using low-dose dmt while working, I found it slightly helpful the one time I tried and may try again but figured Iād ask if you know
Great post. Two things come to mind:
One way to just be able to do more stuff is to take stimulants. I think there are cases where being on them can dent your intelligence in some subtle ways but broadly they can drastically increase your ability to do more, work through when youāre fatigued, etc. Maybe itās still a sufficiently edgy position that you donāt mentioned it here but the absence was interesting. People at college are all taking modafinil for a reason.
I worry that some incredibly ambitious people in the EA world have gone on to pursue paths that have actually been harmful. Early employees at the frontier AI labs seem like the obvious exampleāAnthropic was founded as an āAI safety labā with commitments not to push the frontier but they obviously forgot about that along the way, and it seems hard to justify continuing to work there on capabilities imo. I suspect thereās a lot of motivated reasoning going on among this group. Perhaps itās a cautionary tale about ambition unmoored from reflection as other people point out here, or that if your ambition leads to filthy lucre then itās very hard to course correct later on.
(Agree with the other commenters here that maybe the rate-limiting step isnāt just pushing harder but co-ordination, taking more individual risks, etc)
reposted from my comment on the original Substack article
Are there any guides for how to use stimulants effectively for good? Assuming someone could access pretty much whatever ones they wanted, which ones should they use and how should they go about dosing? Or/āand, what strategy should they use when figuring out what works best for them? e.g. should they try to take a blind random dose and drug and take notes for a while, to pick the best for them? Or start with adderall and slowly increase dosage until they hit diminishing returns, then try modafinil and ramp up dosage till diminishing returns, and repeat for various other ones? Or should they cycle different ones to avoid tolerance?
I know for me caffeine amplifies my energy, but is still unguided and I find myself distracted by the same things but just with more energy and focus. And I know the ācorrectā answer is talk to a medical professional, but I prefer to avoid the medical system as much as possible, and thatās expensive, and anyways how would a medical proffesional approach those questions?
Let me write something up and come back to you.
Broadly in order of safety itās probably caffeine > modafinil > amphetamines (Vyvanse, Ritalin, Concerta, dexamphatamine etc). But amphetamines are very commonly prescribed for ADHD/ānarcolepsy (usually with an ECG and occasional blood pressure checks). I think the risk-reward works out very much positively but obviously Iām eliding a lot of detail.
Sweet, that would be really helpful! I recently read gwerns post on modafinil, but found it wasnāt that helpful for understanding the benefits of taking it, or how to use it effectively (dose, schedule, etc) š I tend to get pretty good sleep, and the main takeaway I got from that post was that it mainly lets you need less sleep
Do you have any insight into using psychedelics for good? I know gwerns microdosing lsd test came up negative, and I havenāt found it helpful for me to focus on a job I donāt like even though it pays well (it actually made it worse) so I havenāt tried it since or for something I actually care about (Iām actively looking for a new role that I will care more about, and may pay better). But I know real trips sometimes help me focus for the following week or two. Iām also curious about using low-dose dmt while working, I found it slightly helpful the one time I tried and may try again but figured Iād ask if you know