Oh my, I had no idea that the world was moving to such a place at such speed. I've been reading all sorts of science fiction for years where the protagonists and their adversaries would wire themselves up on this or that designer chemical to achieve super speed, super strength or razor sharp reflexes. It's like cyberpunk now...
Have I ever used these drugs? No. Would I? In all likelihood, no.
I've worked, in different ways, pretty hard over the past eight years. I've worked on a randomly rotating 24 hour shift pattern, one pattern of which involved 24 hours in two 12 hour batches to cover half the weekend. I've worked 55/60 hour weeks, probably for two weeks back-to-back, now three times this year. That's all really very tiring, physically, mentally and emotionally. I get very tetchy by the end of those patches, dream angry dreams, sit for a few minutes at a time stewing in fury directed at anything that happens to be "wrong" with the world. I wonder why? Maybe, just maybe, it's because the body and mind both need rest? I can't imagine where I got that idea from.
While I was working the shift patterns it became difficult to see my friends. I'd get up after they'd all gone to work or university. I'd get home after they'd all gone to bed. I might chat to one or two online overnight if they were nocturnal at the time, but I started to shave my sleep shorter and shorter. I think I was down to four hours sleep on most nights, with intermittent 14/16 hour sleeps to recover when I was on a three day break. I was taking Pro Plus and Red Bull in copious quantities to stay sufficiently alert -- that's caffeine and saturated sugar solutions for those paying attention at the back. I was also commuting on the train and had chance for a 20/25 minute "power" nap on the way into work and on the way home. To be honest, I think those naps were the things that actually kept me sane over the nine months I was on shifts.
I used to drink a lot of Coca Cola, the fully caffeinated and sugared variety, but I've never imbibed similar quantities of coffee or tea. Many people seem to live on coffee, rely on it to get them out of bed or something... never been there, even at my most exhausted. My body sends me "you feel ill, stay in bed" signals before I arrive there.
Recently, I'd save a strong cup of coffee to get me past working at 22:00, and right at the end of May I was borrowing sugar and caffeine from Red Bull to keep me awake. However, through that same period I've been taking Adrenal Support (blend of Wild Yam, Saw Palmetto, Magnesium, Potassium and Chromium, in appropriate quantities), under direction. The caffeine helps me get past a particular problem on that day but I avoid, if at all possible, becoming dependent on it. What caffeine have I had today? None at all... no tea, no coffee, no fizzy drinks, no chocolate. I have, however, started on my daily 3 litres of water and will shortly get a large glass of fruit juice. Why? Because my body needs the water and goodness in the juice, and it sure as hell doesn't need the stimulants.
What of all this has helped the most?
Well, the long hours on caffeine and sugar worked with me when I was 22. I tried it again when I was 25, post that metabolic change that hits us all at one time or another, believing I could do it in the same way. I couldn't and I felt really ill trying. I threw some caffeine at it and I just felt more ill. The first five of the past six years I've had high comparitive sick days (10+, I believe, including one period where I was off for nearly two months feeling really crappy). I've done a whole bunch of things to change my dietary habits from junk food and caffeine, long hours with no rest and so on.
In the past 6 months I've had 1 day off sick. I drink 2 to 3 litres of bottled water a day. When I'm pushing myself I take Adrenal Support and sometimes some other nutritive supplements (B vitamin complexes, Zinc, Potassium). If it is really late and I'm out of time on something then I'll push to, at most, two cups of coffee. The Red Bull thing, a couple of weeks ago, was stunningly rare (last Red Bull I drank was probably three years ago)... I was also desparate to get finished so I could have some holiday and my timescales were being shortened on me daily.
Despite all this, would I use these drugs? Nope. Why? I can see the effect as addictive: not physically addictive, necessarily, but imagine the high of "hey, I don't need sleep, I can keep going an extra 8 hours a day on this". How many times have you said to yourself that there aren't enough hours in the day? I've said that a lot. But can your body keep up with you? When are you resting? Are you recovering or just coming down when you're resting? How long 'til you need a drug to help you get over the drugs you've taken?
On occasion I arrive at a state of focus and clarity on a problem that surprises me, afterwards, with its intensity. But that razor clarity is good for certain kinds of problem -- hold together all these details for long enough to arrive at an understanding or a solution. Programming is full of that sort of problem, as is crisis management and likely all sorts of other areas. However, there is a different kind of thinking that I engage in that such a level of clarity would actively be unhelpful for... it's a kind of "brain wander" I engage in listening to certain kinds of music, usually when I'm thinking about game design, but I just wander here, inspect something, wander there, inspect something, organically generating ideas. Clarity, for me, is all about convergence on a solution. This "wander", for me, is all about divergence.
What if, by taking one of these drugs, I screw up my divergent thinking method? All my best ideas come from there. Sure, my best implementation comes from convergence, but speed and clarity aren't factors in invention.
I've wandered around rather a lot, above, but I don't think I'm coming to any more specific point than I've already intimated. I'd not take these, and having just explored some of my thinking in writing this I'm now more certain that I'd avoid them. New chemicals in my head? Hell no, the ones I've got are weird (and good) enough without monkeying around with them!
