Performance Enhancement: Now It's Our Turn!

The New Yorker just ran an interesting article about the use of neuro-enhancing drugs. Drugs like Adderall, typically prescribed for people suffering from ADHD, create higher levels of concentration and focus for normal people. College students have flocked to them as they once did nicotine and caffeine. They're seen as survival aids in the more competitive schools, or for hyper-achieving students that want straight A's while devoting time to full time jobs, weekend partying, social action committees, student politics and playing violin for a neo-classical math-rock septet.

As I read the article, it seemed a perfect parallel to the dilemma facing professional athletes and the choice of whether or not to abuse steroids. Many of us have some pretty absolute convictions when it comes to the morality of steroid users like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire. But it seems a bit grayer when we consider the risks taken by driven young scholars.

Here's a key bit of dialog between the writer and an admitted neuro-enhancement user:

I suggested that adults, too, might feel coerced into using the drugs.

"Yeah, in a competitive field—if suddenly a quarter of the people are more equipped, but you don’t want to take the risks with your body—it could begin to seem terribly unfair," he said. "I don’t think we need to be turning up the crank another notch on how hard we work. But the fact is, the baseline competitive level is going to reorient around what these drugs make possible, and you can choose to compete or not."

The interviewee above used Provigil in order to boost his performance at competitive poker. It seems disingenuous when he says that we don't need to be "turning up the crank another notch on how hard we work" when that's exactly what he wanted to do.

The steroid dilemma has gone from baseball to your workplace. Imagine if you could easily secure some drugs (that reported only mild side effects) that would make you alert and focused and productive, even on days when you felt sleepy, unproductive or depressed. Imagine that your competition is already doing so. Are you ready to make a decision on which competitive risks you'd be willing to take?