Some Silicon Valley tech workers are taking LSD to be more productive, creative

Some tech workers in Silicon valley are reportedly utilizing the practice of microdosing with LSD to improve their creativity, productivity, and clear their mind. Pictures: Four caps of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). In the following slides, see how advertisements for drugs have changed throughout the years. (Photo by Don Bayley/Getty Images) less Some tech workers in Silicon valley are reportedly utilizing the practice of microdosing with LSD to improve their creativity, productivity, and clear their mind. Pictures: Four caps of LSD (lysergic acid ... more Image 1 of / 67 Caption Close Some Silicon Valley tech workers are taking LSD to be more productive, creative 1 / 67 Back to Gallery

Silicon Valley is known as the hub of innovation, at the forefront of new discoveries and technological development. It's an industry offering clout and prestige to the most visionary, and it churns out millionaires every day. It literally pays to be one step ahead of technology.

To stay ahead of the curve, some workers are resorting to a stimulant to push them to build bigger and better things — and it's not caffeine.

As Rolling Stone is reporting, some tech workers are utilizing a different sort of drug to tap into their creative flow: LSD.

Users are consuming about ten micrograms of a normal dose size — called a microdose — which is an amount big enough "to feel a little bit of energy lift, a little bit of insight, but not so much that you are tripping," according to Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Though the idea of microdosing is rooted in the work of a 1930s Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann, it was introduced in to the public in the modern age in 2011 by a Menlo Park psychologist named James Fadiman in a book called "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide." Fadiman says this practice happens all over, but is more commonplace in the Bay Area, where "übersmart twentysomething[s]" employ LSD to be more alert, resourceful, and creative with their problem solving.

And according to Fadiman, the drug does more than just help consumers crush their workload; it also helps to combat depression, migraines and more, as long as it's not taken in excess. He calls it "healthy alternative to Adderall."

"Psychedelics give me a new sense of emotional freedom, and a new perspective," an anonymous young tech worker told Inc. last month. "Over the subsequent days and weeks, I start to integrate it with more practical ideas and things come out of that."

Of course, the productivity hack is not without challengers.

Matthew Johnson, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University told Motherboard found that this "Limitless"-esque effect could be nothing more than a placebo effect, and that its benefits are unsubstantiated, at least until a double blind study is conducted.

"If you expect to have one of those days, you're more likely to have one," he said. "In fact it's not all that different from the kind of feeling you get from 5 milligrams of amphetamine or a low-dose stimulant."

Still, the practice is spreading fast. There's an active Reddit community dedicated to microdosing, with some offering tips and tricks and others describing their own experiences with psychedelics.

"I am able to make connections in the material much faster than normal," one person wrote. "I'm also engrossed in everything I'm doing."