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Jach comments on An observation on cryocrastination - Less Wrong
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I don't drink coffee, but I suspect it is a justifiable expenditure. Coffee drinkers, would you say that drinking coffee makes you, say, 15% more productive for the hour after you drink it? If you gain any productivity benefit, is it due to something about drinking coffee, or something about not not having had coffee? (The second question isn't relevant to this discussion much; I'm just wondering whether I should start drinking coffee myself.)
It doesn't make much sense to look into expenditures that are small, sporadic, and that you suspect make you feel better. However, it does make sense to look into an everyday expenditure if is big, regular, or potentially useless. (For example, if you generally buy a new pair of shoes every month or two, that's definitely worth looking into--it fits all three of the criteria.) You can frame cryonics expenses as small and regular or big and irregular, but either way they trip one of the criterion. (Coffee expenses are also regular and therefore worth looking into, but as I explained above, I think they might be justified.)
I don't enjoy coffee, but I do make use of caffeine to stabilize my productivity. I buy it in pure tablet form, which is far cheaper than the equivalent amounts in soda or energy drinks, which I used before tablets and have now mostly stopped using due to dental issues.
I'm all too aware of caffeine tolerance, and I only recommend it in infrequent usages. Maybe you pulled an all-nighter two nights in a row and need help staying awake the next day for school, work, or what have you. Long drives are another case, but I don't ever have daily doses (anymore).
As for my productivity estimates when using caffeine, it's primarily a productivity stabilizer. When I use it in sleep-deprived states or for things that require long mental endurance, it puts me in a temporary (for as long as I keep taking it) pseudo-state that is as if I was in my normal one, decently-rested and alert. If I use it in my normal state, I get no productivity boosts. I suspect this is the result of a tolerance developed a few years ago.