you think buffet or munger drinks?
This is something I learned a few years back in a Psych and have noticed to be true for myself/others. Seems to be inconclusive via google though. The concept is called state-dependent memory/learning
I don’t retain all that well if I drink. Buzzed is ok as long as I’m not required to absorb any nuances.
It’s rarely an issue for me because I just drink at social events (even then fairly lightly). It’s pretty that I drink at other times, perhaps once a month.
During business school when I had to turn in multiple essays of 10 to 30 pages in English (which is not my first language), I found during my second semester that I could generate massive amounts of reasonable, well constructed arguments if I was shitfaced. My output was like 4X faster. Half drunk worked better when I was doing my chapter-to-one-page summaries, then just had to study those summaries when I was sober. Flawless strategy if your liver can handle it when you’re younger. Now I barely drink.
I think it also has something to do with one’s general state of anxiety. Too much anxiety is not conducive to almost anything. Thus, if you were to say, have a higher level of anxiety all the time relative to the norm, then, perhaps getting drunk eases you to a state of ‘normal’ anxiety, and somehow gives you the same energy and focus one would have who is within the norm and sober.
I notice that my ‘flow’ of words and thoughts often reach an optimum level when on ativan, or mildly drunk. Thus the ability to write cohesively much faster.
Buffett drinks cherry coke, which is probably a lot worse than drinking beer or coffee. Not the caffeine (1/3 that of coffee) but the sugar which wakes up every cell in your body. There is a reason why kids get hyper on sugar.
lockheed nailed it, it’s the anxiety that makes it hard to learn and retain. If you have a phobia you will know what I mean - to overcome it, you need to relax first. Anxiety breeds irrationality.
I can’t learn new stuff when drunk but have no problem at all recalling something I already know. I have answered 100% questions correctly when a friend quizzed me on her CCNA questions (entry-level network engineering test from Cisco). This was a phone conversation and she was floored when I told her afterwards that I had just killed a bottle of wine.
I don’t advocate it, but when I was studying for level 2 I studied so much that I do remember coming back from happy hours or whatever and not even pausing before diving into the books. I guess it was better than not studying at all.
In college I took a philosophy class because of requirements; I had no interest in the subject whatsoever. We had a paper assignment writing a response to a famous philisophical proof concenrning the existence of God. Seeing as my friend and I had done absolutely zero work in that class until the night before the paper was due, we decided to “get our minds going” by smoking waaaayyy too much green…for hours. I remember getting to the library at like 11pm, drinking a 20oz coffee, and sitting down to finally read the thing I had to respond to. It was like reading Chinese, but because it was so hard to get through, I had to understand the implication of every sentence before I moved on to the next one. My focus to this day has never been that strong. I think turning 90% of my brain off put the other 10% into overdrive or something.
I found some hole in the logical progression that only a high person would think of, started picking at it, and wrote a 7 page essay, which I reduced down to 4.5 by deleting all the unneccessary words and making sure everything flowed clearly. Turned it in at 8am.
Depsite an embarassing gramatical error that I made about 40 times, I got a 100%. The professor wrote “Stratman, this is excellent. Please start coming to class.” I went and talked to him and it was the only time a professor in college tried to guide me towards their field of study. I keep the hard copy around and think of it when I get anxious about taking on something outside of my normal skillset.
Fck it. I’m getting a beer at the local pub. Did my EOC questions for the day. BTW, what’s the over/under on the game tonight?
I’m surprised Buffett hasn’t gotten a sugar rush yet.
On the plus side, your brain is very demanding and cannot burn any fuel other than glucose, so maybe Buffett’s ginormous brain consumes all his sugar budget (sucrose/fructose from HFCS that gets converrted to glucose), leaving his Islets of Langerhans with nothing to do.
It always amazes me to read that the brain consumes roughly 25% of one’s daily caloric burn.
I agree it can assist in certain ways. Much like IEV, I’ve felt that my foreign language skills were greatly amplified when slightly tipsy when I was first starting to really become fluent in speaking. I could read and write and had the skills- just not the ease to have it roll of the tongue like a native speaker. I think this had to do with what lockheed said about it dulling some anxiety.
When it comes to things like this I always believe its highly personal- if you are an antsy person and have a hard time sitting still and concentrating for long periods of time, a little chemical assistance may help you. I always found that working out helped my studying tremendously … calmed me and allowed me to be alert and absorb material much better and for a longer length of time.
^ See guys, next time you see a hammered expat in your office party, cut him some slack and don’t be judgmental; he’s just trying to blend.