What I found with more experimentation of days both with
and without Modafinil was that actually, I was just as
productive if I was well rested, healthy, well fed with
healthy foods and working on something I cared about.
This, I think, is the most interesting part of the entire piece. He talks at length about the benefits of Modafinil:
On the good side, those tasks which I did line up got
done, and with great energy, velocity, etc. A good day
on Modafinil could easily concentrate several days'
worth of work into one, by getting rid of all the empty
distracted bits of the day."
(which sound fantastic) but then mentions that you can get the same benefits just by being healthy. Makes me think that it's kind of incredible what our body can do on its own.
I was just as productive if I was well rested, healthy, well fed with healthy foods and working on something I cared about.
Those are four conditions that are difficult to fulfill 24/7. I'd go so far as to say that it's difficult to have a normal social life and always be well-rested and fueled with healthy foods. Case in point: I have a dance class on Wednesday nights that breaks up after ten o'clock. No way I'm sleeping until 1am or 2am on those nights. But I exercise in the mornings, so I can't stay up until 1am or 2am every night. My life is an engineering exercise, and like any engineering exercise, there are a lot of compromises. I'm curious about using Modafinil judiciously to make up the gap once in a while, possibly at the once-per-few-months frequency he says would be okay. It's incredible what our body will do -- virtually anybody can run a marathon, for example -- but it takes a lot of orchestration to convince our body to release its miserly grip on our resources and do the job we'd like it to do.
Coincidentally, I'm about to go off to college, where I'm sure I'll be sorely tempted by "intelligence enhancers" like Modafinil. Even in my high school there is rampant abuse of Adderall and other stimulants. Thanks for the timely discussion of their effects - although I'm not predisposed towards taking them, I've now got some good information on why there's no need to do so.
When I'm well rested, well fed, healthy, etc, then the Modafinil just has the basic effect of increasing focus and energy while decreasing breadth of thinking, with the comedown 8 or so hours later that leaves me sucked dry. It's not that bad, but it's not so great as to be worth the risk on a regular basis, imho.
It is incredible what the body can do on its own. On the other hand, it's a little disappointing that the body can do this under normal circumstances, but society today pushes it to a false sense of efficiency, and people start taking performance-enhancing medications to get back to the ability we already have.
The conditions aren't mutually exclusive. You can be "healthy, well fed with healthy foods", exercise, and still use modafinil to counteract lack of sleep. I completely agree that eating properly and exercising (or not) will have a huge impact on productivity but they do not make up for sleep.
