gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Originally posted by Odigo Messenger - Now With Free 911 Service
I always find focus to be the main area I am lacking in, especially when working on my own projects. I lack self-discipline.
Have you tried common OTC stimulants like caffeine and nicotine? I started experimenting with snuff recently, it gives a slight little kick, helps me wake up.
It's interesting you mention nicotine actually because a coworker recently said it works really well, and he's a really bright and successful guy at our company.
I'm not a smoker, despite all the other recreational drugs I take, so I am proceeding with caution, but I am going to try out the nicotine gum, maybe the patches, and maybe even vaping a bit.
Caffiene, now, that one is almost a necessary staple for me.
Not necessarily in supplement form, but just ample coffee (black) and/or green tea, and sometimes (sugarless) energy drinks.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Also, I want to remind everyone that I did not do a FULL synchronization/backup of all Totse threads. Most of them either were started by me, revolve around me, or were strictly of personal interest to me.
That being said, I guarantee it will stoke some memories regardless.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Ahh man, that's a lot of work, because I have to crop each shot and join them all just right to look pretty and everything...
I'm a programmer though, and a resourceful one at that, so just give me some time and I will come up with a way to automate the whole project so we can all reminisce and rejoice about the good ol' days.
It might even take me as long as a few days, but I'll put something together.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Oh shit, and I forgot, the rest of you should post things you've tried that have worked, and things that have failed, to make you more productive.
Refer to my stricken-through text in my previous post about my narcissism if you need an explanation as to why I didn't make that clear in the original creation of this thread in the first place.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Once every hour, it is 4:20 somewhere.
Therefore, you should be toking once an hour.
And if you want to get a tad more philosophical on time, you could argue that there are actually gradations between timezone boundaries and that it is ALWAYS 4:20 somewhere in the world, in which case, you have to just smoke weed constantly and without any interruption whatsoever.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Oh, and I posted this in Spurious Generalities rather than Reinvent Yourself for several reasons: 1. That forum gets like, 10 posts a month. 2. I'm a narcissist that believes what I have to say is so important that it just has to be seen by the most people possible. 3. I really think it will benefit everybody, not just in self-improvement per se, but also in just generally being better at whatever it is that you do in life. So it's pretty agnostic / abstractly applicable that way.
Ultimately, it's Lanny's call to move it, but if it moves there, I may lose interest.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
So, in the interest of trying to boost my productivity, I decided to take a bunch of illicit crystal methamphetamines this morning.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but my ultimate goal, was to find just the right balance of neurotransmitters to enable focused cognitive processing.
You see, my academic background is in psychology. I have a bachelor's degree in the subject, and I volunteered in a lab, and started an honors thesis, etc. All of this was focused around cognition.
Now, I am a (self-taught) software developer.
I want to apply what I learned about cognition to being a more productive software developer.
So I am making this thread to document some of my findings thus far.
I have experimented with many different nootropics (noopepts, racetams, stimulants, eugeroics (such as modafinil), as well as microdosing hallucinogens to enhance creativity).
I plan to also try rTMS (Repetetive Trans-Cranial Stimulation) and/or tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) soon. I bought a tDCS device recently and am building myself up to using it.
I also use various behavioral techniques to enhance focus, such as implementing Kanban (a task management methodology common in software development), and timeboxing / using the Pomodoro technique (where you set aside a precise amount of time to work on a task, and then when that timer runs out, you stop).
Basically, I plan on trying everything that I can to improve my overall productivity.
The title of this thread is named as such because it refers to the phenomenon wherein you achieve that perfect balance between emotional arousal and performance.
There will be more to come, but I wanted to get everybody ready for some truly mind-expanding experiments that I will be performing.
Stay tuned.
Or don't.
P.S.: One other big thing I learned from psychology is that the "glass half empty" types are generally less successful in life due to the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Originally posted by Obbe
I enjoyed arguing with Rust over God and spiritual things.
Yeap, Obbe is another O.G. member that I won't ever forget.
Rust was the strictest rationalist and skeptic.
You were his polar opposite. You embraced all kinds of new fangled spiritualities and perspectives.
I even have a few of our conversations saved away somewhere, just the two of us, and some with Rust as well; and sometimes they were quite vitriolic - but all in good fun.
You have been officially added to my list of classic Totse friends on here.
gadzooks
Dark Matter
[keratinize my mild-tasting blossoming]
Originally posted by Grimace
Hahah it secretly was one of my ambitions as well. Glad to have spent the time I did there. It went down while I was in prison. Meta wrote me the letter telling me and I remember the fucking SHOCK I felt reading those words. Fucking horrible feeling. Here I was, in a cell, in state prison, feeling BAD because a website went down. Hah. That's dedication.
Oh man, if you're in prison and Totse going down is the worst news you can get from the outside, you know you were dedicated.
I hope that it didn't lower your spirits while you were in there, worrying that it won't be back up by the time you got out.
