What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

The tl;dr is:

1. Apart from ADHD medications, which are very powerful, most drugs and weird obscure supplements have little effect (there are some intriguing but noisy results about peptides).

2. Exercise— especially weightlifting and HIIT— is also very powerful. There's evidence of a dose-response curve where light exercise is good but intense is better.

Arguably this is pretty unsurprising, from an evolutionary perspective. It would be strange if our brains had "one weird trick" to perform a lot better with no downsides, since if it existed evolution should've found it. But being in good shape confers large benefits.

> It would be strange if our brains had "one weird trick" to perform a lot better with no downsides, since if it existed evolution should've found it

It would not be strange at all. We are constantly evolving and so is our environment. This argument is very similar to the "efficient market fallacy", if the market was perfectly efficient there would be no opportunity to create value, but in reality it is highly imperfect.

So regular exercise (lifting, HIIT, and light cardio outdoors) is literally that one weird trick. It's hard to identify any downsides but the upsides are tremendous. It's amazing that people will go out ingesting all sorts of questionable substances just to avoid getting in shape.

There is one more set of substances that work extremely well in partnership and are not harmful. The first is huperzine-a.

You need to add that all of this is self-reported/subjective. I've gone under doctor's supervision through L-Theanine+Caffeine, then Modafinil, and finally Ritalin, and to be brutally honest, while I subjectively feel the best when on Ritalin, I am far from certain I would be able to show it in a blind study with an objective problem-solving task.

Also a blind study with these would be hard, as Modafinil has a noticeable effect on heart rate and blood pressure, and general response to stress (at least in my case), and also causes a distinct chemical smell of one's urine.

> It's hard to identify any downsides but the upsides are tremendous.

I wish! If you're lucky (or not particularly unlucky) that might be true.

I don't feel any mental benefits, nor do I sleep better. Fun kinds of exercise (badminton, football, BJJ) always seem to injure me me over longer time periods (and it takes months, or even years, to heal when you're in your forties). And they are not very forgiving, schedule-wise.

Lifting weights or rowing on a machine is painfully boring, but it does make me feel better physically. It's a great upside, but the downsides are real too.