If deliberately practicing your way to success seems like a lot of work, there’s always the prescription drug route. In The New Yorker, Margaret Talbot explores the increasing use of cognitive-enhancement drugs. Tests have indicated that the drugs improve concentration but their effect on abstract thought and creativity is unclear. As one scientist put it, “I’m a little concerned that we could be raising a generation of very focused accountants.” (On the other hand, that might not be so terrible …) [%comments]
A Generation of Very Focused Accountants
TAGS: drugs
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It seems that people are uncomfortable with the idea of an actual neuroENHANCING drug. They have to come up with some rationalization (“They lose the capacity for abstract thought!”) to console themselves that they must be superior to the druggies.
Creativity can be worthless without organization. Even nonrepresentational abstract artists have to compose their work or else waste canvases.
Once ADD kids grow up, it’s up to them whether they want the drugs or not. I choose to stop as I don’t want to sacrifice my creativety, but sometimes I wish my baby boomer boss would take them.
The sad reality of this is that it is likely to up the bar for workers and students and force more to use more drugs, just as we have seen in sports. The worry is that little is known in terms of how well this works for people of varying age and susceptibility. Once you start hearing of people who have massive heart attacks, or 10 or 15 years later are found to have a 10x chance of getting Alzheimer’s, then this will be taken more seriously (as happened with Steroids and other performance enhancers).
By the way, this is not the prescription drug route per se, since these are off-label uses.
Hey Mr. Levitt,
How else do you think those econ problem sets are getting done, in this age of Twitter and Facebook? (As with steroid use in pro sports, it’s likely to be the marginal candidates who use Adderall. It’s simply not considered cheating in school to use Adderall.)
Why do people cheat in an age of immediate gratification where time=money. How then do we get around the problem. Make it advantageous not to cheat. And how does one do that. Reward taking the time to do a job and to do it well- Make failure something one can overcome with a bit of effort. A wise teacher/educator once explained it to me– an exam/test/ paper etc should measure what you do know i.e., not everything you don’t. No wonder, I have students write essays. And when what they write is unacceptable–they all have a chance to rewrite it– School is so stressful these days for kids and the competition so fierce–no wonder they take/use drugs to resolve the problem of a quick fix. I had a conversation with a co-worker in her 50′s who still blames her mom for the mess that she is in– she was always expected to be perfect by her mom. The result– no kids– she need not concern herself with having a perfect child in so far as she is still so concerned with being perfect herself. Still lies to her mom so as to avoid such difficulties.
Firstly, dextroamphetamine actually gives you wildly creative ideas and I know a couple of artists who take them for that.Secondly, why do people suppose accountants aren’t creative?
Thirdly, paracetamol is a more dangerous, mind altering drug being the most common cause of liver failure. So why is it sold over at the supermarket? And are you cheating if you take it for a headache before an exam?
Frankly, I wonder why no one asks the obvious question: how are these people obtaining this drug? Adderrall (and similar medications) are tightly controlled; they aren’t exactly low-grade antibiotics. Either these people are getting the pills off the street/from a dealer/etc., or they are going to a “pill mill” doctor for them who should probably have their licensed stripped. It is highly negligent to prescribe a medication like this simply to help a young executive “focus”. Do these same doctors also prescribe Oxycontin to anyone who walks into their office and says “I need it”?
I don’t call that a “doctor”, I call it “a state licensed drug dealer.”
J.Ja