Caffiene dehydrates you, which reduces intelligence, concentration, and makes you expend more of your energy per second of labor (you only have a finite amount of that energy per day). You can mitigate the hydration problems by eating food AND drinking water; it doesn’t matter if it makes you use the bathroom more, that’s because coffee makes you need to exchange fluids more, not because you’re “drinking too much water”. Most coffee drinkers do this, and they respond to the tiredness (from dehydration) by drinking more coffee, which is a death spiral.
If you’re looking for productivity or intelligence, anything related to nootropics or nutrition, even sleep, all takes second priority to avoiding permanent brain damage from Covid. Brain damage and fatigue-that-will-never-go-away affects far more people than conventional wisdom indicates (even if it wasn’t ultra-vague). You can always use lesswrong to improve intelligence/productivity in 6 months, but if Covid ends for good in 2 months and you get long covid between now and then, then you might have to spend the rest of your life working 6 hours per day instead of 8, all because you couldn’t wait 2 months for everyone to get infected with like half a dozen different omicron strains (we are closer to herd immunity than ever before). You can avoid permanent brain damage by wearing a cheap p100 mask indoors and eating outdoors, and your vaccination status probably won’t help you at all.
Caffeine has been widely used for as long as evening alcohol, and similarly long as evening cannabis and cocaine. The fact that everyone uses it, and even that everyone has always been expected to use it, has no bearing on reality whatsoever; it started 500 years ago because it felt good and seemed to help. So it’s possible that no matter when you drink it, it might disrupt your sleep, or even reduce your sleep quality in ways you can’t perceive (which will reduce intelligence or productivity).
Caffeine is a stimulant, which means it is pleasurable, which means that it clearly and provably hacks the reward system of the human brain to reinforce the behavior of drinking coffee. It is very good for business, which drives up the demand and supply of coffee, until billions of people are unwilling to go a day without it.
you might have to spend the rest of your life working 6 hours per day instead of 8, all because you couldn’t wait 2 months for everyone to get infected with like half a dozen different omicron strains (we are closer to herd immunity than ever before).
There seem to be enough reinfections, especially with new COVID-19 strains BA.4 and BA.5 that it’s unlikely that herd immunity will stop COVID-19 in the next year.
It does have some bearing on reality if people used it for a long time. There is a tradition and history behind so more are aware of it’s effects. The reason it felt good and seemed to help is better than a substance that was recently discovered and uncommonly used.
Yes it’s good for the coffee industry but this does not mean it’s the primary reason most people agree that it’s healthy. Beer is similar in that way and most agree that it’s not healthy.
I agree totally. I’m biased because it doesn’t for me. However, the death spiral of drinking coffee when you’re dehydrated might still negate the benefits, but only after 1-2 hours. Eating might not help much.
Lung damage and loss of taste are totally insignificant compared to brain damage and permanent fatigue, unless you are over 50 in which case they’re still up there. It is very obviously the right thing to do to wear a cheap P100 mask indoors and eat outdoors, easily more relevant to productivity than any coffee question.
This is true, I’m also biased against alcohol due to my metabolism. Unfortunately, rationality of the masses on things like coffee are almost completely negated by powerful lobbying organizations like Starbucks which can influence trends (the existence of lesswrong posts like these are hard evidence against total negation of societal rationality)
My point with #4 was that coffee is addictive and stimulates the reward function of the brain, instantly gratifying the choice to drink coffee in the deepest way possible. I strayed from that point by focusing on the economic implications.
I have been the only weirdo I know of who wears a P100. I say this to emphasize that I’ve been taking covid seriously.
I don’t see any reason to believe covid will be over in two months, or N months, for any value of N less than “however long it takes for humans to come into a new equilibrium with a novel virus.” I don’t know how long that will be, but 2 seems wrong.
As someone who’s worn a p100 a lot, I can also say it’s hardly cost free. It has all sorts of social, convenience, physical and psychological costs. Maybe those costs are <<< than your covid risk cost. But they do exist. Personally, it’s not obviously correct to me any more that the p100 is the right thing to reach for right now. Mine is currently broken, and I expect I will order a new one, but I’m also kind of happy to “just” be wearing n95s right now.
Caffiene dehydrates you, which reduces intelligence, concentration, and makes you expend more of your energy per second of labor (you only have a finite amount of that energy per day). You can mitigate the hydration problems by eating food AND drinking water; it doesn’t matter if it makes you use the bathroom more, that’s because coffee makes you need to exchange fluids more, not because you’re “drinking too much water”. Most coffee drinkers do this, and they respond to the tiredness (from dehydration) by drinking more coffee, which is a death spiral.
If you’re looking for productivity or intelligence, anything related to nootropics or nutrition, even sleep, all takes second priority to avoiding permanent brain damage from Covid. Brain damage and fatigue-that-will-never-go-away affects far more people than conventional wisdom indicates (even if it wasn’t ultra-vague). You can always use lesswrong to improve intelligence/productivity in 6 months, but if Covid ends for good in 2 months and you get long covid between now and then, then you might have to spend the rest of your life working 6 hours per day instead of 8, all because you couldn’t wait 2 months for everyone to get infected with like half a dozen different omicron strains (we are closer to herd immunity than ever before). You can avoid permanent brain damage by wearing a cheap p100 mask indoors and eating outdoors, and your vaccination status probably won’t help you at all.
Caffeine has been widely used for as long as evening alcohol, and similarly long as evening cannabis and cocaine. The fact that everyone uses it, and even that everyone has always been expected to use it, has no bearing on reality whatsoever; it started 500 years ago because it felt good and seemed to help. So it’s possible that no matter when you drink it, it might disrupt your sleep, or even reduce your sleep quality in ways you can’t perceive (which will reduce intelligence or productivity).
Caffeine is a stimulant, which means it is pleasurable, which means that it clearly and provably hacks the reward system of the human brain to reinforce the behavior of drinking coffee. It is very good for business, which drives up the demand and supply of coffee, until billions of people are unwilling to go a day without it.
Can you expand on this?
There seem to be enough reinfections, especially with new COVID-19 strains BA.4 and BA.5 that it’s unlikely that herd immunity will stop COVID-19 in the next year.
Although I agree that caffeine dehydrates you, this doesn’t mean it negates the stimulant effects.
Some symptoms of long covid there’s more research for like lung damage or loss of taste. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/long-covid-much-more-than-you-wanted Fatigue and especially brain damage can be explained by people who are more likely to report negative symptoms after knowing they have covid.
It does have some bearing on reality if people used it for a long time. There is a tradition and history behind so more are aware of it’s effects. The reason it felt good and seemed to help is better than a substance that was recently discovered and uncommonly used.
Yes it’s good for the coffee industry but this does not mean it’s the primary reason most people agree that it’s healthy. Beer is similar in that way and most agree that it’s not healthy.
I agree totally. I’m biased because it doesn’t for me. However, the death spiral of drinking coffee when you’re dehydrated might still negate the benefits, but only after 1-2 hours. Eating might not help much.
Lung damage and loss of taste are totally insignificant compared to brain damage and permanent fatigue, unless you are over 50 in which case they’re still up there. It is very obviously the right thing to do to wear a cheap P100 mask indoors and eat outdoors, easily more relevant to productivity than any coffee question.
This is true, I’m also biased against alcohol due to my metabolism. Unfortunately, rationality of the masses on things like coffee are almost completely negated by powerful lobbying organizations like Starbucks which can influence trends (the existence of lesswrong posts like these are hard evidence against total negation of societal rationality)
My point with #4 was that coffee is addictive and stimulates the reward function of the brain, instantly gratifying the choice to drink coffee in the deepest way possible. I strayed from that point by focusing on the economic implications.
I have been the only weirdo I know of who wears a P100. I say this to emphasize that I’ve been taking covid seriously.
I don’t see any reason to believe covid will be over in two months, or N months, for any value of N less than “however long it takes for humans to come into a new equilibrium with a novel virus.” I don’t know how long that will be, but 2 seems wrong.
As someone who’s worn a p100 a lot, I can also say it’s hardly cost free. It has all sorts of social, convenience, physical and psychological costs. Maybe those costs are <<< than your covid risk cost. But they do exist. Personally, it’s not obviously correct to me any more that the p100 is the right thing to reach for right now. Mine is currently broken, and I expect I will order a new one, but I’m also kind of happy to “just” be wearing n95s right now.
Caffeine does not dehydrate you — in fact, it appears to be about as hydrating as water.
Yes, and cigarettes reduce the risk of lung cancer.
This sort of thing is not new.
Caffeine: Is it dehydrating or not? - Mayo Clinic
Does Coffee Dehydrate You? (healthline.com)
What does Covid have to do with caffeine here??