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Comment by shittyanalogy | Hacker News Reader

The shock value of this article does not magically turn in into convincing science. Like everything else dietary related (within the limits of reason), you should test for yourself and see how your body reacts. Changing your habits to best suit your expectations. Just because some article says Caffeine may make you less creative doesn't mean it will. Also the net benefit of drinking Caffeine may outweigh the loss of some creativity in your personal case.

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This exactly. Try for yourself. Personally I find myself more creative when I don't use caffeine - being slightly tired may even help a little. However, being slightly tired does not help with my more normal, non-creative, work.

A former coworker was just the opposite - put a few espressos in him and the creativity almost oozed out.

Studies show you're more creative when tired.

Do you have any references to support this? I find the idea fascinating.

Here's one I know of: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13546783.2011.62...

The idea is that some types of problems are best solved with the focus you can provide at your peak times of day. However, "insight" problems might benefit from the reduced focus you have at non-peak times.

with the caveat that it's difficult to assess your own reaction objectively.

I feel more in control of my vehicle when I've had alcohol, but objectively I know that's not the case.

That's hard to test because you might kill people or go to jail in the process, not because it's simply hard to test.

Also, concluding through controlled study that alcohol consumption impairs your ability to safely control an automobile is much easier than concluding that caffeine intake impairs creativity.

Creativity for one thing can be highly influenced by inspiration. Driving ability not so much.

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