
Old Square Discovers Psychedelic Valley - KKKKkkkk1
https://mondaynote.com/old-square-discovers-psychedelic-valley-e38d1ef5bc0f
======
faanghacker
I keep reading/hearing about the relationship between psychedelics and Silicon
Valley, but I have yet to meet that many people in real life who work in the
SV software industry and use psychedelics. 

I'm a SWE who has spent over a decade at various large companies in SV. 

I know one fellow SWE who has used it at Burning Man. 

Several other SWEs gave me a neutral or negative reaction when I mentioned
using psychedelics. 

If there is a side of Silicon Valley that involves using psychedelics to
enhance your work, it's either a lot smaller than the media makes it out to
be, or I'm in the wrong place. 

~~~
sk5t
Perhaps it's not something folks feel comfortable discussing--were these
neutral or negative reactions from acquaintances and coworkers, or from close
friends? 

~~~
faanghacker
I obviously didn't flat out ask others if they had tried it.  I either
mentioned that I had tried it or played dumb and asked if they knew anything
about e.g. microdosing, as if I had only heard of it. 

Anecdotally...

1) Friend from college working in machine learning space who just moved back
to SV from Asia, saying that the tech culture in Asia suffered from a lack of
creativity.  In the same conversation I brought up having used psilocybin and
he freaked out, thinking it was going to damage my brain. 

2) Another friend from college who's a hardware engineer.  who found it strange
that I didn't want to drink whiskey with him but regularly use psilocybin.  He
also warned me about brain damage. 

3) Friend from work whom I knew socially.  After he quit working, I chatted
with him and suggested that if he wanted to try psychedelics now would be a
good time, before he decides whether to go back to working.  He seemed to be
surprised, and just made a comment about Steve Jobs to cover up the
awkwardness. 

4) Another coworker I worked closely with and had a good opinion of me because
of the work that I had done, who had gone to another company.  I asked him if
he knew anything about microdosing while having lunch and he said not to try
that stuff because it would mess up my head. 

5) The Burning Man guy was someone I'd worked with before.  He told me about
his recent BM psychedelic experience after I told him about having used
ayahuasca recently. 

Point is, my experience of sampling people I know in SV both socially and
professionally hasn't yielded anything close to "yeah I have used psychedelics
to help my work" even when I didn't ask them straight up if they had used it,
and instead volunteered my own experience first. 

I worked in large companies in South Bay, not SF-based startups.  That probably
had something to do with it.  Still, all the press about SV and psychedelics
gets tiring when it seems not to take into account the likely uneven
distribution between South Bay vs SF and large companies vs startups. 

~~~
partyboat1586
Your problem is big asking people at big companies.  Most people who do
psychedelics wouldn't like to work for a big company.  Also in my experience as
a contractor inside many companies people who work for a long time at the same
big company are unlikely to have tried anything except alcohol. 

In terms of the Big 5 personality traits:

High openness -> open to new experiences -> try psychs.  High openness -> need
for creative expression -> small company. 

Low openness -> closed to new experiences -> don't try psychs. 

Low openness -> closed to new experiences -> stay in same big company

You don't need some personality model to get that though.  Just to have met
enough people. 

~~~
saiya-jin
World and people are a bit more complex than that.  I am perfectly fine staying
at big banking corp, and in the same time tried shrooms maybe 10x, salvia
extract few times (quite similar but 10-15 minutes only), weed & hash all
around the world. 

Some of us get fulfillment in their lives from stuff we do outside of work
(adrenaline sports, mountains, travelling in my case), and we have work just
to sponsor this, and other pursuits in life.  Even if its quite creative
software dev work. 

But overall you are maybe right, more career-oriented folks in big companies
who have less open mind, like to just follow the rules from above (alcohol ok,
other drugs will kill ya all) etc. 

~~~
partyboat1586
Yeah it's a model, there will be exceptions because reality is more nuanced. 
My problem with working for a big company despite it allowing more time for
doing stuff outside of work is that I just don't connect with the people
there.  Because on average more people are low openness I find we don't see
things the same way and don't have the same sense of humour. 

------
paypalcust83
On _Crime Pays But Botany Doesn 't_ 6 months ago. 
[https://youtu.be/RHRgY8fZNv4](https://youtu.be/RHRgY8fZNv4)

The often dyed-black bark, overwatering, and climate of mixed-use
commercial/residential developments in the Bay Area provides the perfect
habitat for psilocybin mushrooms. 

Happy accidents of potential supply and demand, minus DEA licenses. 

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wideasleep1
Just now discovered psychedlics, yet founded Be Inc. Interesting. 

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gdubs
I think there’s some funny context here given his ... fraught relationship
with Steve Jobs, who was — famously — a fan of LSD. 

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vidarh
In this context "What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped
the Personal Computer Industry" by John Markoff is pretty much a compulsory
read for it's story of how the history of the valley is rife with
experimentation with psychedelics. 

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asguy
Nobody is designing chips anymore.  We're microdosing LSD and getting excited
about our opinionated web frameworks.  The Bay-Area-innovation knows no bounds. 

See y'all at Burning Man. 

~~~
gerdesj
Keep 6' or an Osman apart please. 

[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/27/reg_standards_sovie...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/27/reg_standards_soviet_social_distancing_measure/)

------
crawfordcomeaux
Will someone please bring this person some mushrooms? 

~~~
wideasleep1
Or, Jean-Louis could simply watch his countryman's 1973 Epic: Fantastic Planet
(La Planete Sauvage). 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwrip4d1JFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwrip4d1JFc)

