[Viliam1234]

Race to the bottom.

If there is a stimulant that only hurts your health a little, and it becomes popular in your industry, you will have to take it in order to remain competitive, because the workload will be adapted to the new standard.

> It seems to me that some consider it a form of cheating when you don't change your diet or the sports / exercise regimen, work-life-balance etc.

The difference is, if you later find out that some specific diet or exercise regimen hurts your health, you can change it. If you find out that coffee (or modafinil, in the future) hurts your health, but you are socially expected to use it, then it just sucks to be you.

[luckylion]

Possibly, but we don't seem to see a race to the bottom, at least not yet. It appears that some people who want to push extra hard take it, and a lot of people who want to get to some level they consider normal and attainable. I've experienced very positive results, and anecdotally so have others I've recommended it to. Not "wow, I can work 10 times as much now", but rather "I have a choice how much I work now, I'm not hard-capped at an hour or two".