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> Hospitals are chalk-full of surgeons, doctors, and nurses that are all overworked, burned out, and half-awake. A friend, who switched from electrical enginee

> Hospitals are chalk-full of surgeons, doctors, and nurses that are all overworked, burned out, and half-awake. A friend, who switched from electrical engineering to medicine, told me that the medical residency program in the US was essentially molded by a doctor who was a cocaine addict; seemingly a lot of his students were, too. Maybe it’s a lot easier to work ridiculously long hours when you’re hopped up on coke. The (admittedly limited) looking I did into the topic suggests that there’s at least a kernel of truth to that story — if not more. You can look for yourself: the doctor’s name was William Stewart Halsted. Tongue-in-cheek, but maybe the ADHD medications that doctors and academics often abuse today aren’t as efficacious as good old fashioned cocaine in keeping people working for 80+ hours a week. To be fair, I don’t think cocaine was illegal during Halsted’s time, though he was in and out of treatment for that and, later, morphine addiction.

hirvi74 2y ago
> maybe the ADHD medications that doctors and academics often abuse today aren’t as efficacious as good old fashioned cocaine in keeping people working for 80+ hours Well, I have ADHD and take those meds. They can absolutely work like cocaine in that regard, but I have never intentionally used them like that. Those meds would have to be used very judiciously because tolerance would mitigate that effect quiet quickly.
- derstander 2y ago
  Oh yeah — I definitely understand that some people need ADHD meds to function normally: my partner is one of them, too. We joke during acute shortages that it must be exam season at the local colleges. But of course I know there are chronic shortage issues as well that aren’t simply explained by students wanting a quick boost. I’m mostly poking at people that don’t need it using it to augment their focus. One thing that I wasn’t aware of until I happened upon a blurb somewhere is that Adderall is harder to get in many other countries than in the US (and seemingly impossible/illegal in a few).

hirvi74 2y ago

> maybe the ADHD medications that doctors and academics often abuse today aren’t as efficacious as good old fashioned cocaine in keeping people working for 80+ hours Well, I have ADHD and take those meds. They can absolutely work like cocaine in that regard, but I have never intentionally used them like that. Those meds would have to be used very judiciously because tolerance would mitigate that effect quiet quickly.

derstander 2y ago
Oh yeah — I definitely understand that some people need ADHD meds to function normally: my partner is one of them, too. We joke during acute shortages that it must be exam season at the local colleges. But of course I know there are chronic shortage issues as well that aren’t simply explained by students wanting a quick boost. I’m mostly poking at people that don’t need it using it to augment their focus. One thing that I wasn’t aware of until I happened upon a blurb somewhere is that Adderall is harder to get in many other countries than in the US (and seemingly impossible/illegal in a few).