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by netizen-936824 1646 days ago
>When Ronald Graham, a concerned friend and fellow mathematician, bet him $500 that he couldn’t stay off his drug of choice for a month, Erdős accepted and easily won the challenge. When the 30 days was up, Erdős said to Graham, “You’ve showed me I’m not an addict. But I didn’t get any work done. I’d get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I’d have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You’ve set mathematics back a month.”

This quote is hilarious, and I find it interesting that there's a difference in intelligence between drug users and non users. My gut feeling is that there would be no significant difference.

I will note that most drug use does not impact intelligence negatively. Of course it can if abused to a great enough degree as that will significantly alter neural function but this also depends on the specific mechanisms of the substance.

Dr. Carl Hart is a great example of this. He's been a recreational heroin user for 5 years and is a tenured professor of neuroscience at Columbia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Hart
2 comments
DarylZero 1646 days ago
Wow, he published a book admitting to using heroin. I would think even with tenure, you would get fired for that.
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jeffreyrogers 1646 days ago
And yet most people who OD on heroin or otherwise ruin their lives due to it are not PhDs.
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netizen-936824 1646 days ago
You're right, but simply because most of the population does not have PhDs.

If people had a fully tested and clean source of heroin (free from fentanyl) there would be less overdose deaths.

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jeffreyrogers 1646 days ago
2% of people in the US have PhDs. I would be surprised if 2% of people who die of ODs have PhDs. Harm falls disproportionately on those unlike the OP.
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DarylZero 1646 days ago
It's important to understand -- the ODs are caused by adulterated supply.

Perhaps PhDs are on average better socially-connected so that they have better supply chains. But it isn't directly because of personal characteristics.

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PraetorianGourd 1644 days ago
Not entirely. Yes today most overdoses involve fentanyl but that’s a recent development. People were overdosing on pure heroin as well.
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