Apparently, one reason more intellectual people (typical Silicon Valley types) have less of an addiction problem is that they enjoy their work and thus life enough, they don’t need to quickly wash down another suck of a day, so they can have less euphoric hobbies in the evening, say, drawing or painting.
I don’t think this is exactly right. There is a correlation between intelligence and addiction, but it’s not so strong that you won’t still find a lot of addicts among the intelligentsia. Chemical addiction is a process whereby you ingest chemicals to stimulate your reward center. Smarter people who are wired in such a way that they can get the same jolt of reward-juice from working hard or whatever may be able to substitute that behavior as their trigger rather than a chemical like alcohol, but it doesn’t mean it’s not caused by the same kind of chemical deficiency. Also, as pure anecdota, I believe there is a probably a largely unmapped dependence on illegal stimulants (like ADD meds, not cocaine) in cultures like those found in Silicon Valley. I am currently a graduate student in Chemistry and have noticed a large percentage of my fellow students use such stimulants citing their performance enhancing properties despite evidence that such drugs decrease performance for neuro-typicals.
With regard to points A) and B)
A) There’s no non-chemical boost that I can think of that will match the chemical boost. If you’re into games on your phone, Minecraft PE is pretty open ended and may provide some of the stimulation you’re seeking, but it sounds like you’d like a substitute for whatever fix addiction provides and if there’s something like that it may be dependent on your neuro-chemistry. Common substitutes (according to google) include overeating, exercise, and burying yourself with work.
B) Whether it’s possible to just get used to not having that stimulation may also be dependent on your neuro-chemistry. I have done it and I know several other people who have done it, but I’ve also met quite a few who haven’t been able to do it. I don’t know of a foolproof method to stop an addiction.
You’re saying that you want quick jolts that don’t require an investment. I don’t have any good ideas for that. Learning to meditate seems to help reduce the importance attached to cravings for some people. Exercise certainly triggers a lot of the same pleasure and reward chemicals. You can also read through the some of the relevant material here on LW (How to be happy(short), Be Happier(longer)). The long term effects of addiction are usually pretty bad, so I’d say it’s worth making the investment, but it’s a lot easier to say that than to do it.
There’s no non-chemical boost that I can think of that will match the chemical boost.
Music is an obvious counter-example to it. People who like it, can get completely “crazy” from something like Faithless : Salva Mea or The Prodigy: Firestarter. It is the strongest non-drug drug I know.
Parachuting, bungee jumping and motorcylce riding also count. I just don’t want to do them. But they do work like that.
Meditation is a funny topic. First of all, 99% of the people I know think it means sitting with an empty mind etc. and you should expect some mental effect. However, what I practiced for years was entirely different, in the “red hat” tradition of Tibet it was not about empty minds but using imagination to visualize and also saying mantras, and it was not promised to have any immediate “trippy” effect, and indeed it didn’t. The idea was more like long-term improvement. I should also say that in these gompas people tried to sit up straight but did not work very well.
At another time I visited a Zen center, and here they made me use a very tall, thick pillow and sitting strictly on the edge of it, which was not so in the other one. This kind of moved my lower hip forward, upper hip back, creating a position where the bottom of the spine could be balanced, and it was easy to balance the upper spine, creating a much more straighter spine position than before. And it was the more common mediatation, just empty mind and watching the breath go out. And this kind instantly had very, very, very trippy effects.
However I read stories from people who do not care that much about position, just sit up in bed roughly straight and still have effects.
I don’t think this is exactly right. There is a correlation between intelligence and addiction, but it’s not so strong that you won’t still find a lot of addicts among the intelligentsia. Chemical addiction is a process whereby you ingest chemicals to stimulate your reward center. Smarter people who are wired in such a way that they can get the same jolt of reward-juice from working hard or whatever may be able to substitute that behavior as their trigger rather than a chemical like alcohol, but it doesn’t mean it’s not caused by the same kind of chemical deficiency. Also, as pure anecdota, I believe there is a probably a largely unmapped dependence on illegal stimulants (like ADD meds, not cocaine) in cultures like those found in Silicon Valley. I am currently a graduate student in Chemistry and have noticed a large percentage of my fellow students use such stimulants citing their performance enhancing properties despite evidence that such drugs decrease performance for neuro-typicals.
With regard to points A) and B)
A) There’s no non-chemical boost that I can think of that will match the chemical boost. If you’re into games on your phone, Minecraft PE is pretty open ended and may provide some of the stimulation you’re seeking, but it sounds like you’d like a substitute for whatever fix addiction provides and if there’s something like that it may be dependent on your neuro-chemistry. Common substitutes (according to google) include overeating, exercise, and burying yourself with work.
B) Whether it’s possible to just get used to not having that stimulation may also be dependent on your neuro-chemistry. I have done it and I know several other people who have done it, but I’ve also met quite a few who haven’t been able to do it. I don’t know of a foolproof method to stop an addiction.
You’re saying that you want quick jolts that don’t require an investment. I don’t have any good ideas for that. Learning to meditate seems to help reduce the importance attached to cravings for some people. Exercise certainly triggers a lot of the same pleasure and reward chemicals. You can also read through the some of the relevant material here on LW (How to be happy(short), Be Happier(longer)). The long term effects of addiction are usually pretty bad, so I’d say it’s worth making the investment, but it’s a lot easier to say that than to do it.
Thanks, it is honest and partially useful.
Music is an obvious counter-example to it. People who like it, can get completely “crazy” from something like Faithless : Salva Mea or The Prodigy: Firestarter. It is the strongest non-drug drug I know.
Parachuting, bungee jumping and motorcylce riding also count. I just don’t want to do them. But they do work like that.
Meditation is a funny topic. First of all, 99% of the people I know think it means sitting with an empty mind etc. and you should expect some mental effect. However, what I practiced for years was entirely different, in the “red hat” tradition of Tibet it was not about empty minds but using imagination to visualize and also saying mantras, and it was not promised to have any immediate “trippy” effect, and indeed it didn’t. The idea was more like long-term improvement. I should also say that in these gompas people tried to sit up straight but did not work very well.
At another time I visited a Zen center, and here they made me use a very tall, thick pillow and sitting strictly on the edge of it, which was not so in the other one. This kind of moved my lower hip forward, upper hip back, creating a position where the bottom of the spine could be balanced, and it was easy to balance the upper spine, creating a much more straighter spine position than before. And it was the more common mediatation, just empty mind and watching the breath go out. And this kind instantly had very, very, very trippy effects.
However I read stories from people who do not care that much about position, just sit up in bed roughly straight and still have effects.
Bunch of other things work like that as well—alpine skiing, whitewater kayaking, mountain climbing, etc.