beriukay comments on Rationality Drugs - Less Wrong

26 Post author: lukeprog 01 October 2011 11:20AM

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Comment author: beriukay 30 October 2011 12:02:17PM 2 points [-]

I decided to try some of the suggestions here. There was a piracetam powder I ordered. How on earth are you supposed to ingest that crap?!! I have such a powerful negative taste reaction, even disguising the ~2g in 3 glasses of water, or 2 glasses of milk, or in a mouthful of food (though it suggests consuming on an empty stomach)... that even if it was prescribed by a doctor to cure aging, I'd be hard-pressed to take the recommended dosage on a daily basis. What can I do to continue this experiment without having to annihilate my taste buds?

Comment author: gwern 30 October 2011 03:01:32PM 2 points [-]

You mustn't done much reading about piracetam because everyone complains about the taste - it's impressively nasty, isn't it? (BTW, if you purchased the powder, I guess you noticed the price difference between the powders and the pills; you should have wondered why there was such a price difference and not then been surprised at the taste.) Anyway, what you can do about it:

  1. hide it with citrus fruit juices (eg. unsweetened grapefruit juice)
  2. cap the piracetam powder (might be a bit expensive if you don't already own a capsule machine and empty pills)
  3. 'parachute' (make pills using toilet paper)
Comment author: pengvado 30 October 2011 04:43:25PM 1 point [-]

you should have wondered why there was such a price difference and not then been surprised at the taste

I would have expected any price difference to have something to do with the cost of making pills. If that's not the case... is there a competitive market in powder but not a competitive market in pills, or do all the sellers agree on this same method of price discrimination, or what?

Comment author: wedrifid 31 October 2011 01:20:07AM 0 points [-]

I would have expected any price difference to have something to do with the cost of making pills. If that's not the case... is there a competitive market in powder but not a competitive market in pills, or do all the sellers agree on this same method of price discrimination, or what?

I'm inclined to agree. A large difference between the price of pills and the price of the powder tells us a whole lot more about the depth of the market than about taste. If the market for piracetam were large one would far more closely track the other.

Comment author: gwern 30 October 2011 04:49:12PM 0 points [-]

There's usually a cost to the convenience of pills, yes; but the greatest the difference, the more convenience is being provided (because otherwise people would just cap their own or not buy the substance at all). Piracetam seems to have unusual differentials, pointing to some greater convenience being provided - which I believe to be related to its revolting taste.

Comment author: beriukay 02 November 2011 01:14:11PM 0 points [-]

Grapefruit juice worked great! I also tested and found V8 to work pretty well. The powder floated on the top and I barely noticed it, even using just half a glass.

Comment author: beriukay 01 November 2011 07:12:50AM 0 points [-]

You are correct. I basically wiki'd it, glanced at some of the LW material, browsed amazon and saw largely positive reviews for the product. Maybe those people all have capsule-makers.

I'll report back with my experiences with citrus and/or parachuting later. Thanks for the tips!

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