It's not BS. That's for sure. Coming from someone who used to think it's all BS also.
Yes there's cases where they're due to mental illness, or other reasons that could be explained scientifically. But don't let that make you think that these sort of cases don't happen neither.
If you stay away from the doorways that the article mentioned, you should be good. Believe whatever you want to believe on how the world works. But the rabbit hole goes deep.
To be honest I much rather think that these sort of things don't exist also but I've known the truth.
Great article. Agree with most of the points there.
It's an idea that looks great on paper but it's actually not that great.
It's like the 'unlimited vacation' rubbish. Like yeah, people area actually afraid of taking vacations or they take too much and got terminated. It's best to know how many days you've actually earned and take what you have than playing those games.
Plus no actual way to verify who's doing the homework assignments anyway as opposed to a live interview however imperfect that is.
On top of that, some sketchier startup founders opened up that they're starting to abuse this to get tasks done for free. So as a candidate why'd you allow yourself for this?
Sleep is number one. Without it, you will think much much slower. When you are deprived, parts of your brain shut off and 'rest'.
Once that's taken care off, stimulant is another way. Coffee in general is a widely accepted way to accelerate thinking.
As some people mentioned, general anxiety or fear/emotion could impact thinking both positively and negatively. A healthy dose of cortisol could improve performance but too much of it especially if you get into panic/terror mode would impede fast thinking.
Fasting once you past through the low glucose phase could actually help assuming you are not one of those who are plagued with persistent brain fog due to lack of fuel during a fast.
Toxic load matters. If your body chemicals are out of whack or intoxicated it might cause brain inflammation which would impact your thinking.
But more importantly the baseline is genetics - how your brain is wired really matters. The amount of grey matters & glia along with the unique way your body myelinate connections impact how fast you could think.
Nootropics - could help to a certain extend but they ALL have side effects, some permanent so I don't recommend them.
Me watching too much fight club and partying with too much tea..