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Comment by ThisIsMyAltAcct | Hacker News Reader

Well yeah, he was constantly on amphetamines

Not sure why this was downvoted and previously flagged. It's well known that Erdős took amphetamines. In fact, he once bet Ron Graham that he could quit taking them for a month. He won the bet, but he famously said the progress of mathematics was set back by a month.

https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/14598/erdos-use-of-a...

I guess he and Lloyd Bridges both picked the wrong time to quit amphetamines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhaXZh-p4hQ

I’m not one of the downvotes but my guess would it’s not because a fact was stated.

Rather that the tone of the comment seems to trivialize his contributions.

A user in withdrawal would certainly say that.

> Not sure why this was downvoted

Because it is a lazy comment that contributes little and a lot of people on HN don't like that, preferring to promote conversation. But people on HN tend to take votes less seriously and more about moving comments around.

As if I could just up my adderall dosage and become a mathematical God

A Mathematician is a machine for turning amphetamines into theorems.

And he was also celibate which is even harder and much more uncommon. And being that celibate, well perhaps amphets are just like some coffee to you. Definitely out of this world to be judged as common mortals, who even when being on amphet, do not spit papers but only cyclic nonsense

>celibate which is even harder and much more uncommon.

How is it hard? You don't have to do anything. Being the opposite is hard.

Celibacy is common nowadays.

it's a shame that everyone quite amphetamines.. otherwise we'd be getting more Erdős, right?

[0]> According to FDA manufacturer surveys, by 1962, US production reached an estimated 80000 kg of amphetamine salts, corresponding to consumption of 43 standard 10-mg doses per person per year on a total-population basis. Thus, in amphetamine alone, the United States in the early 1960s was using nearly as much psychotropic medication as the 65 doses per person per year in the present decade that social critics today find so extraordinary. And the 1960s are rightly remembered for excessive minor tranquilizer consumption, around 14 standard doses per person per year on the basis of retail prescription sales. It is rarely appreciated that in the early 1960s, amphetamines were actually consumed at a higher rate than tranquilizers.

Total amphetamine production 2024[1]:

Lisdexamfetamine 26,500kg

d-amphetamine (for sale) 21,200kg

d,l-amphetamine 21,200kg

d-amphetamine (for conversion) 20,000kg

Population of USA in 1962: 184.9 million

Population of USA Today: 331.9 million

This covers the 41.4 million prescriptions for amphetamine in 2021 which would be enough for 3.45 million people, but not illicit amphetamine/methamphetamine. 1.2 million Americans reported using methamphetamine in the past year. Also other similar stimulants like methylphenidate, modafinil would also have to be calculated into any analysis, these weren't nearly as popular in the 1960's. 63,000kg of methylphenidate are produced in USA for 2024.

0: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2377281/

1: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/02/2023-24...

All those meth addicts are just misunderstood math geniuses.

'50s weight loss drug

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