- If you stimulate the economy, then some parts of the economy grow “bigger” at the expense of others growing “smaller.” Similarly, if you use a stimulant such as caffeine or nicotine, then some parts of the body (including some parts of the brain) grow “bigger” at the expense of others growing “smaller.” Stimulants, whether given to the economy or the body, don’t give extra resources; they only change the prioritization of the resources that are already there. But—and here I’ll let go of the economics analogy and talk only about health—that change in prioritization can grow some abilities at the expense of others. Rice, wheat, tea, coffee, and tobacco give me better mental performance for schizoautistic thought but my sexual performance doesn’t do as well. A diet of only meat, fish, and fruit, on the other hand, does the opposite for me: My sexual performance does well, but only at sacrifice of the great power of imagination needed to experience the world of books as if it’s right there in front of me. The here and now becomes more important than working “alongside” Hume, Mises, Hayek, Chomsky, and others.
- “Taking” rice, wheat, tea, coffee, tobacco, and other drugs, drug-like foods, and drug-like drinks, is analogous to taking steroids. It’s undeniable that steroids make you stronger (despite not actually giving you any extra resources to work with), and it’s undeniable that in some sports not taking steroids puts you at a disadvantage. Some professional sports are such that you’d be inevitably selected out of the top of the sport unless you take the health risk. Caffeine, nicotine, and other nootropics are similar: If you care too much about your health to take the risk, then you’ll be at an intellectual disadvantage. You’ll be inevitably selected out of the top of the intellectual world.
- Eating only meat, fish, and fruit, with everything being raw, would be ideal for physical health and performance. Doing so would be also be ideal for a kind of mental well-roundedness. Adding wheat, coffee, and other civilization-building psychoactives to that diet, then, would make for less robust physical health and performance but as a deal with the devil: You’d change your balance of mental abilities, becoming less well-rounded; some mental abilities would grow out of all proportion with others. If your presets are intellectual—which, incidentally, is true for both of us—then you’d become a better intellectual at the expense of becoming worse at everything else.
Stimulants
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