Comment by virtualritz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by virtualritz | Hacker News Reader

On HN the use of psychedelic microdosing for problem solving/creativity is usually the only context that is being discussed. But there are others.

For rapid motor skill improvement I suggest microdosing LSD or shrooms and then doing the resp. excercise/practice. Ideally with a teacher/master present, to correct/help.

Also applying the techniques from the famous "The Inner Game of Tennis" book during the trip window helps/boosts the effects for me.

The more difficult the motor skill is and the more coordination with other sensory input it requires, the better the gains.

I am tango dancer and this is a hobby that takes years to master.

Some people would say a decade or more, until you get to an acceptable level.

Even more, if you have zero musicality and two left feet, like I did, when I started. It was an uphill battle for years.

I only discovered this hack by accident, during the lockdown, about six years into this hobby.

I believe I cut years off my tango learning time, ever after. And there is strong evidence based on the feedback of people from the community I dance in, who know me/danced with me for years, before and after.

My partner only started tango two years ago. She is also microdosing regularly when she trains and sometimes even for social dancing, when we go to events where the level is very high/you are expected to dance with lots of experienced partners.

Most people believe she is dancing since at least four, but sometimes over five years.

Certainly, my sample size is two.

But it makes sense when you look at what the research on psychedelics suggests about increased neural plasticity during a trip (if that is even what you want to call it when microdosing).

I had some friends/peers go through a period of micro dosing. They had similar beliefs about increased learning based on similar theories of neuroplasticity, fueled by trendy podcasters and influencers.

As an outside observer, I got to a point where I could usually tell which days they were microdosing. The biggest tell was that their self confidence went up significantly. They would consider routine accomplishments to be great achievements. They would have an increased sense of wonder after even basic realizations. If anything, their actual problem solving abilities were diminished or at least slowed on those days.

All but one of them eventually discontinued it, realizing that it was doing more to distort their perceptions than actually improving themselves. One has unfortunately continued with increasing doses over the years to try to chase the early feelings. He’s reaching a point of delusions of grandeur and he’s accumulating a lot of weird pseudo-religious ideas and theories. It’s very concerning.

I have no doubt that micro dosing changes how people feel about their own performance after watching this play out over several years, but I’m far from convinced that it actually has a direct effect on improving learning in the ways the influencers are claiming. I could see how altering self-perceptions could improve confidence enough to make someone perform differently, but I have some serious doubts about the drug actually improving cognition or learning.

I do wonder how this may be different between things like physical or musical skills vs something more academic.

One of the keys of being able to learn something adroitly is believing that you are capable of learning it, and one of the pitfalls is believing you can do something that you cannot.

Some doubt is good and healthy. When doubt is preventing you from living a good life then some temporary chemical bypassing can be good, but if there is no doubt in your way then you're just chasing the high.

That sounds fantastic if safe over the long term. If you are learning faster, do the results stick? In your case, it seems that the reward is worth the risk. Are you aware of any studies into the long term effects of microdosing psychedelics?

The results do stick.

My first experience was random, when I tried a new, legal LSD variant[1], during the end of the pandemic, summer 2021.

I tried first ~40µg, while still finishing work (code).

Didn't feel anything so I took another 40 and then went dancing two hours later. At 80µg the LSD was just below psychoactive, so that dose was too high, in retrospect. I now use 40µ and that is perfect for me.

The only indicator I had, after the night, was external. Three followers came to me, out of the blue, and told me: "you were my best tanda tonight, thank you." (A tanda is a block of three-four songs danced together, before you change partners).

That struck me as odd/very surprising, at the level of dancing I was at then. A comment like this was something I would hear once-twice a year, if lucky. But three in one night?

After that the praise kept coming from other tango people I danced with for years before, i.e. they felt the change.

That's when I started experimenting with it and it has just become another tool to improve since then.

People who disregard this I tell to talk to dozens of dancers who know me for years.

They didn't know about what caused it. Yet they saw/see and felt/feel the change in my dancing and particularly musicality (which was, until then, my biggest struggle).

[1] LSD.shop

From the point of view of harm prevention, you should probably be more specific about what substance you consumed here.

1cP-LSD at the time. Currently 1V-LSD; still from the stash of I bought last year. Can't admittedly report on what LSD.shop are selling currently.

Both feel not noticably different from pure LSD I took years before.

Do you think any of this could be from improved confidence? It would be fascinating if you could figure out how to study this in a double-blind way with a placebo.

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