Psily

psily

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Mapping CX/UX Research Competencies to Stay Human-Centered in Product Development

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nida-nih/51015715423/in/photostream/ The observation that the brain makes [something described as] predictions is a gateway to exploring how placebos work. It also includes what follows after, to have therapeutic effects—in the conditions they do. Placebos involve the expectation to feel better and the experience of it. Placebos are used in studies. They, however, have presented a different challenge in testing the efficacies of psychedelics and antidepressants. There is a feature in The Atlantic, Psychedelics Are Challenging the Scientific Gold Standard, stating that "In clinical trials, participants (and the researchers studying them) generally aren’t supposed to know whether they’re getting the actual drug or a placebo, to avoid allowing people’s expectations about a treatment to shape their response to it. Blinding, as this practice is called, is a key component of a randomized controlled clinical trial, or RCT—medicine’s gold standard for demonstrating that a drug actually works. But virtually no one can take a psychedelic drug and not know it. Such failure, if it exists, might extend beyond psychedelics to several kinds of psychoactive drugs. For instance, a 2022 analysis found that many antidepressant trials fail to effectively blind participants, in part because of side effects." This contributed, in part, to a recent report by Reuters, US FDA panel votes against first MDMA-based PTSD treatment, stating that "Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday voted against a therapy based on the mind-altering drug MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, marking a setback to the nascent field of psychedelic treatments. The panel voted 10-to-1 against the first MDMA-based PTSD treatment, saying the benefits did not outweigh its risks, while nine members said the available data did not show its effectiveness in PTSD patients." There might be a few conceptual approaches around this, starting with some questions. How does the human mind do what is described as prediction or anticipation? How do relays occur in the mind—afterwards—to result in relief? How can this be explained to participants and researchers in a way that neutralizes the expected side effects of psychoactive drugs against dampening the placebo effect or group identification? Brain science has established that electrical signals leap from node to node in myelinated axons, going faster in what is called saltatory conduction. This is different from continuous conduction in unmyelinated axons, where they travel directly along the length of the axon without leaping. It is postulated that in a set of electrical signals [in clusters of neurons], some electrical signals split or go ahead of others to interact with chemical signals before others follow. This means that whatever initial perception an individual has, either of sight, smell, touch, taste, or sound, could be a result of this split. If the input matches with the split, then relays continue—with the incoming signals going in the same direction. However, if the input is different, the incoming electrical signals go in the right direction. This explains what is described as predictive coding, processing, and prediction error. Simply, when two letters in a word are first seen, there could be a perception of what the word is, which may be confirmed if the rest of the letters are seen. In this case, the first and second sets of the electrical signals would go in the same direction. If the rest of the word is seen and it is different from what was perceived, then the incoming electrical signals would go in another direction. This is a mechanistic way to explain how the brain appears to predict using electrical signals. It is proposed that electrical signals are always splitting, making it feel like predictions are common in the mind. Splits are postulated to be a division of distributions—a feature in the human mind. Distributions are defined as the way some sets of signals get the outputs of other sets of signals. Distribution happens in attention [a feature] and in awareness [another feature, but less than attention]. For example, a word may result in the memory of an event, the sight of something may result in an emotion of fear, or the sound of something may result in an appetitive feeling. Also, experiences with side effects—or not, can also be described as distributions since electrical and chemical signals are involved in modulations of internal senses. Some other features of mind, including intentionality, may be responsible for distributions as well. When intent does not [a non-intent feature], arrays do. However, destinations of distributions are not always constant—they may vary, sometimes widely. There is a new paper in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Dynamic Functional Hyperconnectivity After Psilocybin Intake Is Primarily Associated With Oceanic Boundlessness, where the authors "investigated the relationship between neurobiological and experiential patterns after psilocybin by focusing on the link between dynamic cerebral connectivity and retrospective questionnaire assessment." How does the human mind work for distributions that correlate with hyperconnectivity? How do psychedelics have an effect? What is the relationship between predictions in placebos and how psychedelics work? How can hallucinations in psychedelics be explained in comparison to those in large language models? Can AI shape future clinical trials for psychedelics? Exploring the postulate of the human mind in the action potentials neurotransmitters theory of consciousness​, ​with examples and detailed animations, could work in explaining to participants and researchers that while there are expectations of side effects, features of the human mind ultimately decide experiences. So, it may not proportionately apply that the absence of side effects indicates that the participant is under placebo, open-label, or otherwise. Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nida-nih/51015715423/in/photostream/ Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nida-nih/51015715423/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nida-nih/51015715423/in/photostream/ The observation that the brain makes [something described as] predictions is a gateway to exploring how placebos work. It also includes what follows after, to have therapeutic effects—in the conditions they do. Placebos involve the expectation to feel better and the experience of it. Placebos are used in studies. They, however, have presented a different challenge in testing the efficacies of psychedelics and antidepressants. There is a feature in The Atlantic , Psychedelics Are Challenging the Scientific Gold Standard , stating that "In clinical trials, participants (and the researchers studying them) generally aren’t supposed to know whether they’re getting the actual drug or a placebo, to avoid allowing people’s expectations about a treatment to shape their response to it. Blinding, as this practice is called, is a key component of a randomized controlled clinical trial, or RCT—medicine’s gold standard for demonstrating that a drug actually works. But virtually no one can take a psychedelic drug and not know it. Such failure, if it exists, might extend beyond psychedelics to several kinds of psychoactive drugs. For instance, a 2022 analysis found that many antidepressant trials fail to effectively blind participants, in part because of side effects." The Atlantic Psychedelics Are Challenging the Scientific Gold Standard This contributed, in part, to a recent report by Reuters , US FDA panel votes against first MDMA-based PTSD treatment , stating that "Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday voted against a therapy based on the mind-altering drug MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, marking a setback to the nascent field of psychedelic treatments. The panel voted 10-to-1 against the first MDMA-based PTSD treatment, saying the benefits did not outweigh its risks, while nine members said the available data did not show its effectiveness in PTSD patients." Reuters US FDA panel votes against first MDMA-based PTSD treatment There might be a few conceptual approaches around this, starting with some questions. How does the human mind do what is described as prediction or anticipation? How do relays occur in the mind—afterwards—to result in relief? How can this be explained to participants and researchers in a way that neutralizes the expected side effects of psychoactive drugs against dampening the placebo effect or group identification? Brain science has established that electrical signals leap from node to node in myelinated axons, going faster in what is called saltatory conduction. This is different from continuous conduction in unmyelinated axons, where they travel directly along the length of the axon without leaping. It is postulated that in a set of electrical signals [in clusters of neurons], some electrical signals split or go ahead of others to interact with chemical signals before others follow. This means that whatever initial perception an individual has, either of sight, smell, touch, taste, or sound, could be a result of this split. If the input matches with the split, then relays continue—with the incoming signals going in the same direction. However, if the input is different, the incoming electrical signals go in the right direction. This explains what is described as predictive coding, processing, and prediction error. Simply, when two letters in a word are first seen, there could be a perception of what the word is, which may be confirmed if the rest of the letters are seen. In this case, the first and second sets of the electrical signals would go in the same direction. If the rest of the word is seen and it is different from what was perceived, then the incoming electrical signals would go in another direction. This is a mechanistic way to explain how the brain appears to predict using electrical signals. It is proposed that electrical signals are always splitting, making it feel like predictions are common in the mind. Splits are postulated to be a division of distributions—a feature in the human mind. Distributions are defined as the way some sets of signals get the outputs of other sets of signals. Distribution happens in attention [a feature] and in awareness [another feature, but less than attention]. For example, a word may result in the memory of an event, the sight of something may result in an emotion of fear, or the sound of something may result in an appetitive feeling. Also, experiences with side effects—or not, can also be described as distributions since electrical and chemical signals are involved in modulations of internal senses. Some other features of mind, including intentionality, may be responsible for distributions as well. When intent does not [a non-intent feature], arrays do. However, destinations of distributions are not always constant—they may vary, sometimes widely. There is a new paper in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging , Dynamic Functional Hyperconnectivity After Psilocybin Intake Is Primarily Associated With Oceanic Boundlessness , where the authors "investigated the relationship between neurobiological and experiential patterns after psilocybin by focusing on the link between dynamic cerebral connectivity and retrospective questionnaire assessment." Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Dynamic Functional Hyperconnectivity After Psilocybin Intake Is Primarily Associated With Oceanic Boundlessness How does the human mind work for distributions that correlate with hyperconnectivity? How do psychedelics have an effect? What is the relationship between predictions in placebos and how psychedelics work? How can hallucinations in psychedelics be explained in comparison to those in large language models? Can AI shape future clinical trials for psychedelics? Exploring the postulate of the human mind in the action potentials neurotransmitters theory of consciousness ​, ​with examples and detailed animations, could work in explaining to participants and researchers that while there are expectations of side effects, features of the human mind ultimately decide experiences. So, it may not proportionately apply that the absence of side effects indicates that the participant is under placebo, open-label, or otherwise. the action potentials neurotransmitters theory of consciousness

Predictive Coding, AI: Modeling Placebos in RCTs for Psychedelics and Antidepressants

A collection of poems and random notes: In sum, swell doggerel Well she used to love me but that's all over now... I quit humming my tune and continued my monologue. For those with the unbridled temerity to inquire of her name, she goes by Simile, Simile Metaphor... She worked at a club downtown. That's where I met her, at "The Hatbox". She was a "dancer", that's what she called it anyway. And it was good. Hell, it was better than good. It was great. Till we emptied the account. Then she split. Took the jewelry too. She was like that. Has anybody seen my baby? Has anyone seen my gal? Tales of heartache and desire. Distrust and lust. She sounded SO sincere. I couldn't help it, I just had to believe, know? Aw crap! Now I'm cryin again. Damn! Sniff. I mean she could be as fine as the rose and just as sweet, but damn, she could be mean as the thorns too. Maybe that was part of it. The idea that I could tame the tough girl. Make her into a lady, know? The hull seemed to tremble just so slightly as the retros fired their quick little bursts, the servos reacting in instants to every stimulus. We were coming down. Down in Territory. Donco was pissed. It was the umpteenth time he'd heard about Simile and my tale gave him unpleasant memories. That way sometimes, know? But hey, he would never SAY he was pissed. Nah. Then I could refuse to listen to HIS monologue, and that simply wasn't gonna happen. Nah. We were kinda honor bound to listen stoically to each other's sad and tawdry refrain. Same repeated sad repartee. This is why we don't date chicks that work at clubs, dance for a living. A Ho is A ho, you know... Ya know? Good riddance! I believe that we are not alone in the universe. I believe there are civilizations out there both more advanced and less sophisticated than ours. But, I also know that there are a LOT of "hoax" videos about UFOs. I just don't think that all these videos show UFOs in the sense of alien craft. Once upon a time I was driving in Kentucky. Long straight stretch of road. This very bright object/light came in from what was to me the left horizon and traversed about halfway across the hemisphere moving incredibly fast. Then it turned 90 degrees. No curving turn. No slowdown. If there are species beyond our ken, their technology will appear as magic. And barring accident I don't think for the most part that we'll know when they arrive(d). If they land in my front yard I may poop in me undies first, but I am nonetheless determined to ask for a ride. You know if there are such advanced species what could they gain from us? Well suppose that they brought "us" here to begin with.
Suppose that propagating their species this way was part of their "program" and that this dispersion, diaspora galactica, is intended to insure survival and gain trade partners, where the trade is to be in ideas, in concepts and in thoughts, not in material objects; that is, once we ascend to that level. IF we ascend to that level... In a dream I saw her, the Jade Lady. She was at the temple. With a snake. They said it was her familiar. I don't know. I ran. But my feet would not move. I was consumed by the snake. In the pit of holy fire I became her consort. Then I awoke. And I have had this fever and chills ever since the dream. What could it be doctor? Take advantage of the machine, USE the machine, make it yield to your advances. But don't let the machine by itself just generate random effects. I am seeking edification about PhotoShop and I've been playing a lot with filters. But what is REALLY the cat's meow is a drawing tablet. You just "draw" except it's on the screen. And it's fast. And forgiving. Oooops! Just UNDO. It appears that most of what I can do with pencil ink or paint can be done on the machine. I peeped some of ur stuff. Don't give up "handmade" on REAL media. But it IS fun. I am grateful for the toys and some talent God gave me. This made me miss the hashhish. The member of Abu'l-Haylukh remained In erection for thirty days, sustained By smoking hashish. Abu'l-Hayjeh deflowered in one night Eighty virgins in a rigid rite, After smoking hashish. Felah the Negro did jerk off his yard For all of a week; hashish kept it up hard. The Negro Maymum, with opiate, Without stopping to ejaculate, Futtered for fifty consecutive days. Allah bepraise him for having fulfilled Such a task! But then, fresh vigor instilled, Obliged to furnish ten days more-- Making sixty days of coition his score-- He fain went on and finished the chore. During this ordeal Maymum, in bed, Smoked what held up his penis head: Hashish! -- Quoted in The Cradle of Erotica, Edwardes & Masters, pg. 96. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Mahatma Gandhi Dalai Lama said "Some people automatically associate morality and altruism with a religious vision of the world. But I believe it is a mistake to think that morality is an attribute only of religion. We can imagine two types of spirituality: one tied to religion, while the other arises spontaneously in the human heart as an expression of love for our neighbors and a desire to do them good." "I cant explain myself, because im not myself you See..."
-alice This song is one of the best ever. Just gives me chills. “Comin Back To me”, Jefferson Airplane The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long
The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone
And through an open window where no curtain hung
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me One begins to read between the pages of a look
The shape of sleepy music, and suddenly you're hooked
Through the rain upon the trees, that kisses on the run
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me You can't stay and live my way
Scatter my love like leaves in the wind
You always say you want to go away But I know what it always has been, it always has been A transparent dream beneath an occasional sigh
Most of the time I just let it go by
Now I wish it hadn't begun I saw you, yes I saw you, comin' back to me Strolling the hills overlooking the shore
I realize I've been here before
The shadow in the mist could have been anyone I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me Small things like reasons are put in a jar
Whatever happened to wishes wished on a star?
Was it just something that I made up for fun?
I saw you, I saw you, comin' back to me Word! They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you're high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it's not worth the f*cking effort." (Bill Hicks) Real ligion "God has come in different ways that the many might be saved. There are many paths to the gates of Heaven." from the Book of Bob (BoB) 1:1 I cannot find any reference to this or similar phrasing. Therefore I claim it as the first verse in the Book of Bob. Bob has a peculiar take on forgiveness he'd like to share. In the Lord's Prayer we ask for forgiveness for something. In most people's familiar it is trespass. That's because this version came from England, where trespass was one of the worst transgressions.
In other traditions its our indebtedness, from Europe, where monetary debt was not good. We ask for forgiveness as we forgive others. But here's the rub: if you cut me I can forgive you or not as I choose. But if you cut Jack, only Jack and God can forgive you. I cannot forgive you for cutting Jack. In fact, if I PRESUME to forgive you for cutting Jack, I am committing hubris.
Peace&OneLove! For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
~~ Titus 2:11-14
Finding the good, doing the good not to get into heaven, but because of the joy in having already gotten my ticket.
This phrase, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." is and holds one of the most important concepts about my belief system. In my mind "to all men" doesn't mean just those who accept Christ as their savior. And somebody said "God has come in different ways that the many might be saved." And this doesn't contradict the notion that some may not come unto the Father except by Jesus. My Father sends whom He will to every man. And if He comes for you, however He may appear, you'd best accept the gift. I'd guess that perspective is not altogether acceptable to some. LikeYeah! "Shrooms" as the popular phrase goes is a very nice high. Now they are experimenting with psilocybin for mental illness, with Ritalin being used as the control drug for some of the subjects. Now Ritalin have you seeing people in the trees. One of the few drugs that provoked paranoia in the LabRat. My limited experience indicates that there is a tendency for lingering aspects of the trip. I'd probably gobble a handful if they were in front of me. In me old age I used to wash em down with beer. Ah well... You can make your little head do amazing tricks, and it isn't that difficult. Some tricks, like associations, may seem contrived but after you have done this a few times it becomes background process, so you don't have to focus on the remembering so much. My House And my house shall have places to lie, perchance then to nap and to dream.
In my house, I shall know heaven. Roly Poly, tickle my holey There were four old whores of Baltimore,
Drinking beer and wine,
The topic of conversation was,
"Mine is bigger than thine." Chorus : Roly Poly, tickle my holey, smell of of my slimey flue,
Then drag your nuts across my guts,
I'm one of the whorey crew. The first old whore from Baltimore said,
"Mine's as big as the air,
The birds fly in, the birds fly out,
And never tickle a hair." Midnight sweat. Soaking wet.
Worst one yet.
Can't forget.
Vietnam vet. winking eye winking eye soft lover's sigh, winking eye
sweet lips
silk glove, soft winking eye, winked its eye
lover's trips
soft like a sigh too shy, winked its eye
lover's trips
soft like a sigh, never no til ya try
smooth hips
lover's trips
winked its eye, soft lover's thigh
smooth lipped love,
before the sigh, winked its eye
soft, like a sigh too shy, winked its eye
lover's trips
soft love, never know til ya try, winked its eye
smooth hips, lover's trips
before the sigh winked its eye
sweet lips
winked its thigh before the sigh, sweet eye
lover's trips
like a cry before the sigh, soft thigh
lover's trips
soft, love, too shy to sigh, winked its eye
smooth hips
lover's trips
soft lover's thigh,
soft silk glove never no til ya try
before the sigh winked its eye
lover's trips
soft lover's sigh, never know til ya try
sweet lips, lover's trips my computer wrote this in 1985! Fart proudly crepitu superbe some random verses the dragon is at the door with his fiery roar because he wants more Listen my children and you shall hear
A warning that needs to be made clear.
Out here on the highway the risk is near;
No locks nor latches should allay your fear,
You see the highwaymen are already here,
And they want what you hold so very dear.
So, wanna buy some protective cyber gear? i saw the uber geek
he was quite unique
one strange freak let me tell ya how it's gonna be
yes lord jesus is the one for me
he came along and he set me free
of this earthly sin and misery It was a wondrous machine
Both concave and convex
So it would suit either sex
But oh what a mess to clean The thug monkey The thug monkey has come down from on high,
I tell you the monkey is no more in the sky,
Instead he has come to abide with you and I.
Monkey hopes you will believe him bye and bye
So chin up there's no reason for you to cry,
Monkey said so and you know he wouldn't lie.
Soon everyone will have a slice of the pie,
And Branson and Bezos won't be allowed to fly
With resources stolen from you and another guy. livin the blues livin the blues with a jazz flavor
that's the kind of music I savor
play some more and win my favor In the space between the stars, Out there someplace way past Mars, They say you run out of whiskey bars Along the freeways filled with cars, Those long and cold concrete scars. But it's ok cause we got mason jars Full of the kindest of blunt cigars. Oh my honey, my do good honey, If only we had all his money, Why then the things we could do! Save the world for me and you! Doesn't matter about his plan,
He simply doesn't understand
This great egalitarian opportunity
To do some real good for our community. No mere mortal needs that much dough,
Surely that much we all should know.
If he doesn't appreciate our scheme,
Take his funds to finance our dream. Because what is truly important here
Is the agenda we hold so near and dear,
And we need to make that really clear! I saw a place I saw a place
there was blue sky over a city of gold
a fever dream
or at the least that is what I am told
no reality
would dare be so beautiful nor so bold
and now you see
I am become quite cynical and quite old
and what I think
is that it has all been bought and sold Logins are fascinating! So let's consider the idea of the Magic Link (ML). A user wants to login to your site or app using an ML. The first part of the ML protocol involves the user's request to do an ML login. Does a user want to use an ML, and if so how do they let us know that? Let's assume the user has to request an ML login to initiate the protocol, though you could just send ML's to all your clients for say an ad campaign. So for example to request an ML a user could provide an Email or an SMS address, or if the system preregisters users perhaps their user name, maybe even an ID or address for a connected key fob device or special host. This request for an ML could be a user entry or automata provided. The second part of the protocol is our response or reply to an ML request. To respond to the user's request for an ML we need some address or means of contacting the user to provide or deliver that ML (or other info, say an error message) to them. Do we even know who they are, or for that matter do we care beyond the simple contact information needed to send the ML? grammatically speaking for f*ck's sake The singular form of the apostrophe has an implied yet not explicit plurality for the possessor f*ck. So while the textual expression is singular there is an embodiment of plurality that can not be overlooked. This is frequently an issue in the interpretation of idiomatic speech or expressions. ☺ the cowboy Now babe don't come all undone
It's just a cowboy with his gun
Looking for some hit and run
And other kinds of good clean fun I loved her just the same Though her duralon finish
Had begun to diminish
I loved her just the same
For that I'll take the blame
But her gears had started to strip
They could no longer get a grip
And she really started to flip
So then I called the factory
They offered nothing satisfactory
I am so tired of trying to explain
To get poor service again and again
For a product that just went insane Hail Proud Mary!
Not very pretty,
'n her lip is hairy;
yeah she is scary,
one ugly fairy. being a genius is rather like being a high powered battery.
nothing happens until you connect it to something. ;-) "The man represented all that was wrong with the world, a shining avatar of evil so bright, Jill wanted to slam the door and spend the next hour and a half on her knees." Conkluzion Hope you have njoyed this collection of letters deranged into words. When the fever is upon me I frequently wax prolific with such doggerel. As always, Comments, Criticisms, and Suggestions are welcome.

Some Swell Doggerel Vol.2

A SHORT CHRONICLE

Have you ever had an idea for something truly polarizing? An idea that comes into your mind when you least expect it, only to be shut down immediately by your rational self? All too often, we shut down great ideas because of the risk they involve. Perhaps they'd ruffle one too many feathers in your industry. Maybe it's something that has never been done before, and so you've got no idea how it would play out. But what if you paralyze you? What if you decided to go for it, and see where that takes your career or business? didn't let the fear of risk I recently spoke with Matt Stang, a guy who went against the grain and made enormous headway in his industry. With progressive views on drug legalization and psychedelic therapy, Matt risked ruffling more than a few feathers through his career – but as a result, he was instrumental in changing the conversation around therapeutic drug use. If there's something you're passionate about, it might be time to block out the noise and carve a new path. This is what I want to explore in today's newsletter: how to take risks in your industry, and what you (and others) stand to gain. Matt Stang and Delic Corp: Changing the Conversation When he was in college, Matt wrote his thesis on "marijuana legalization in a time of terror". He was interested in exploring the social and economic problems with the war on drugs and looked at the issue from a unique angle. For the majority of people, however, pro-legalization was a foreign opinion to have. Knowing he wasn't in line with the status quo, Matt wrote the paper anyway. "I wrote a 70-page thesis on how we could convince the other side of the aisle – at that point, the broad majority of the left-wing and the vast majority of the right-wing – by giving people an economic incentive to change a messed up set of rules." After catching the attention of a key figure at High Times, Matt went on to pursue an internship in the cannabis industry before eventually owning and operating High Times. He now runs a business with his wife called Delic Corp – a company that focuses on normalizing psychedelic treatments and making them accessible to all. "I've always been a true believer in changing the illegal nature of certain substances. I think that there's a major disconnect between a country that promotes liberty and freedom and then jails people for going after their best life." Stepping Outside the Box Regardless of your stance on drug use and legalization, you've got to admire Matt's tenacity and willingness to follow his passions. The war on drugs is by no means over – in fact, the vast majority of people would still raise an eyebrow at psychedelic use – so for Matt to pursue this line of work takes true brunt and authenticity. But not all risks are worth taking, and some are downright dangerous – so what separates a calculated risk from a reckless one? In Matt's case, he didn't go into his industry blind. He was well aware of the behind psychedelic treatments, therapies, and the potential they had to help people, and he continues to keep his thumb on the pulse of this industry. emerging studies "We're seeing a lot of action and heat around different compounds. Psilocybin is in phase three clinical trials with the FDA. MDMA is in phase three clinical trials. We have the largest chain of ketamine clinics in America – the only FDA cleared psychedelic substance that allows people to turn off their default mode network and change their mind." Along with possessing all the facts, Matt has the passion to go along with it. I took a look at Matt's company website (you can find it ), and I was truly impressed by the purpose-filled messaging I saw. here "We believe in long-term solutions that get to the root cause – not symptom-focused treatments and temporary cover-ups." Matt's winning combination of purpose, passion, and possession of the facts really set him up for success in his endeavors. He helped to spread the 'marijuana is safer than alcohol' messaging in Colorado, after which it was legalized in the state. "It's not causing crime to rise, and it's actually just getting a bunch of more tax dollars. And now people don't have to step into illegal areas to do that – so they're not exposed to negative illegal things." Now with Delic Corp, Matt is hoping to reach a lot more people with the treatment they need to live healthier, fuller lives. "Not everyone can be saved. But it's about helping those 60-70% of people get better, and not have to be stuck with a constant bill from a pharmaceutical company that doesn't really fix them." What's Your Delic Corp? Polarizing ideas often turn out to be the most influential ones after their time. Think about and his work with genetics, or Galileo and his theories on – they were both considered highly radical in their time, or worse, they were outright ignored. Gregor Mendel heliocentrism And what about those who fought for women's rights in the 1900s? Those laws are integral to society now, but people were once ridiculed and spat on for suggesting equality was the way forward. In your industry, are you taking risks that could lead to great change? What's stopping you from going after those big ideas? There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to risk – it all depends on your personal goals and the situation at hand. But if there's something you're passionate about, it might be time to take the plunge. Are You Taking the Right Risk? Again, I'm not saying that every risk is equally viable. Impulsiveness isn't a good substitute for due diligence, and recklessness can often lead to disastrous consequences. So how do you know if the risk you're taking is a good one? Here are three questions to ask yourself: What are the potential outcomes of this risk, both good and bad? How likely are each of these potential outcomes? What can I do to mitigate the risk of bad outcomes? What are the positive and negative changes this might cause? For example, let's think about Matt's case: The potential outcomes of this risk are both good and bad. Good outcomes could include increased mental freedom and health for people, while bad outcomes could include negative side effects from psychedelic treatments if research is misinterpreted or overlooked. The likelihood of each of these potential outcomes is highly variable. Good outcomes are more likely due to the science already available on psychedelics, but bad outcomes can never be ruled out. To mitigate the risk of bad outcomes, Matt does extensive research into the latest studies around psychedelic treatments, therapies, and their potential side effects. The positive and negative changes this might cause are also highly variable. Positive changes could include a more widespread acceptance of psychedelics as valid therapeutic options, while negative changes could include a rise in recreational use and consequent addiction problems. Those are the types of thoughts you should be pondering before taking the lunge. But here's the one question you should never ask yourself: "What is everyone else in my industry doing?" Stay In Your Lane If you're running a race, you'll never win by looking into someone else's lane. The same goes for your industry – you shouldn't allow yourself to be intimidated by what's 'normal' or 'standard' in your field. If no one dared to step outside the box and try something totally new, we'd still be living in the dark ages. Though we tend to look down upon the risk-taker, our society relies on daring people to push boundaries and explore new horizons. Risk is the price of progress – isn't that the saying? So, how can you be more daring in your industry? Here are a few thoughts: 1. Be curious and ask lots of questions. Rather than trying your hardest to assimilate, think, "How could this process be done more efficiently?" "What might happen if we took a different approach?" "If it was up to me, what would I change?" 2. Be willing to experiment. Trying something new doesn't always have to involve a huge leap – sometimes, it can be as simple as testing out a new process or strategy in a small way. Spice up your portfolio by making it into an interactive website, or try a new social media platform to market your product. 3. Be yourself. This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give you. Don't be afraid to show your colleagues or clients who you really are – they might appreciate the fresh perspective, and it could lead to better, more authentic work relationships. Most of all, make every effort to keep an open mind. I believe our best ideas go to waste when we live our lives totally by the book. In all things, acknowledge the nuances; the gray areas that often make life more interesting. And who knows? You might end up changing drug laws or disrupting the pharmaceutical industry – or at the very least, you'll have the courage to pursue your passions. Wrap-up For those interested in hearing more about the crossover between psychedelics and therapeutic treatments, head over to my Success Story Podcast and watch the full interview with Matt . It was incredible to learn how much headway the scientific community has made in the past few years when it comes to psychedelics and mental health. here To all those with big ideas brewing in their subconscious, I hope this article has given you the courage to take the plunge. If there's one thing history has taught us, it's that progress is only made when people are willing to step outside their comfort zone and try something new. Thanks for reading! Originally published here.

The Risky Business of Breaking New Ground in Your Industry

I gradually woke to the warmth of Harry licking my lips, just frantically enough so I knew he needed to pee. It was three in the morning, cold and quiet. I hooked the leash to his collar and  we headed out into the night. I'd been unemployed since July and this was October. I'd been in online direct marketing for six years, becoming Creative Director, and in theory, I could go back to something like that. We sold 'cosmeceuticals' like wrinkle reducers and scent-based weight loss powder and did surprisingly well through rigorous A/B testing and a deep understanding of human laziness. It was a risk-free trial ...as long as you return your shipment in 30 days. The price to land each customer sometimes approached the cost of the product, but as long as 30 or 40 percent forgot to cancel their continuity, we'd bank a solid profit. --Oh, you didn't know it was a continuity program? Should have read the fine print, sucker. The difference between financial success and abject failure was around 1.5 shipments per customer. It was honest work, as long as your bar for honesty was just above wire fraud. We'd optimized the process into a ruthlessly profitable juggernaut, but who wants to wake up every morning to make the world just a little bit worse than the day before? Could wake up each day knowing the world would be better off if you didn't wake up? As fun as it sometimes was, and my bosses knew how to throw a decadent party, I got tired of shilling for the dark side and finally had to quit. you I could go back to school thanks to stock options money. But for what? I researched school psychology and genetic counselling, I could become a nurse practitioner or maybe a physician’s assistant. But then I talked to a friend who's a PA and she likes nothing more than assisting surgeries all day long, the bloodier the better. She bragged about holding a beating human heart in her hand like some Aztec priest. Nothing felt right, time was running out, and I could only tread water for so long before I'd have to go back to selling perfumes that could make you look ten years younger based on actual scientific data. I couldn't claim unemployment since I'd quit. But an actress friend told me a trade secret. Every show is its own job. As long as you have a decent income history, you can work once as an extra then qualify for unemployment after the shoot. That might buy me enough time to find my path. So I signed with Central Casting, a company that provides background workers to shows across the LA area. Unfortunately, so many people are either hoping for their big break or else can't stomach manual labor that call lines tend to max out the second a job is posted. It took a lot of patience and effort, but eventually, I landed the role of 'wealthy patron' at a late-night tiki bar, in the background of , starring Zoey Deschanel. The timing was perfect because the very next day I'd arranged to shadow a clinician in South Pasadena. After flipping through a dozen possible careers, I'd landed on Speech-Language Pathology. It was science-based, could be achieved after a few years of college, and best of all I could wake up every morning with the knowledge I was actually going to help people improve their lives. I'd already ordered a set of cranio-facial flashcards and begun memorizing the bones of the skull. The New Girl First, of course, I needed that bi-monthly unemployment check, so two days later I pulled into the Fox parking garage in my finest bar crawl gear with my only good suit in a garment bag. stage was a massive warehouse with its interior partitioned off into sets. There were maybe 30 extras slouching on folding chairs or rolls of carpet in an area walled off on the left and right by the sort of painted flats seen through the window of a situation comedy. Varying levels of hope and desperation were on display, from empty nest housewives to absurdly attractive 20-somethings trying to make a few bucks between auditions. But there was a sad, resigned quality to it all, as if we were just waiting for a flight to some industrial town for a contractually obligated visit. The New Girl Keep in mind these people get minimum wage, they arrive early, stay late, are often asked to bring specific items like dry-cleaned suits or musical instruments to the set, and the majority of their day is spent sitting in a cold dim warehouse in group isolation. Most importantly, there is absolutely zero chance this experience will result in any sort of acting career. You'd be better off driving around town with 'Cast Me!' spray-painted on the side of your van, which Dennis Woodruff did years ago to limited success. Background work is menial labor wrapped in the mind-numbing boredom of a waiting room, loosely held together by the thinnest tissue of show-biz. It's purgatory with a paycheck. And so we waited, for what felt like a full working day, as I memorized terms like 'Anterior nasal spine' and 'Zygomaticofacial formen'. Hours later, a background wrangler brought us onto the brightly lit set of a tiki bar, to be arranged in clumps of two to four. Our job was to hold elaborate tropical drinks, not look at the cameras, and pretend to have interesting conversations while the actors spoke their lines. They placed me in a far corner facing an oddly placid woman, and I smiled at her pantomimed repartee as the show's male star mused with his friends about the emotional repercussions of an upcoming pub crawl. The cast and crew and even the extras were patient and professional, and I couldn't help wondering what it would be like to wake up every morning to work insanely long hours creating mildly interesting commercial delivery mechanisms that people watched while eating their dinners on the couch. Would that be enough to live your life without regrets? The setups moved at a glacial pace, and after an hour even my fake conversation began to run dry. Eventually, I fell back on the usual nervous tics --nodding, grinning sheepishly, taking long slow sips of my drink --at which point I remembered they didn't make me a drink. They'd poured tap water into a tiki mug without washing it out. Suddenly I had a mouthful of drywall runoff and spackle. My partner reacted to the panic in my face as I realized you can't spit up brown sludge in front of the cameras; they'd fire me in an instant and I'd never get unemployment. The lady touched my shoulder with concern as I tried desperately not to projectile vomit across her teal party dress, before finally choking down the gack with a grimace. Hours later, wandering the deserted lot during our nighttime lunch break, I realized there was no way the coffee I'd been pounding could power me through the next 10 hours of the shoot. This is why, to maintain energy and focus, I swallowed a couple of psychedelic mushrooms. They were medicinal, brought as a metabolism booster in case of emergency, and I quickly forgot I'd even taken them. Until about an hour later during the climactic scene at the tiki bar. We're standing silently, inches away from each other in our club crawl finery, trying not to meet each other's eyes as camera people tinker with something at the bar. A dapper Filipino guy in a bow tie mocks me for eating the fruit décor of my tiki drink --which, to be fair, we'd been explicitly and repeatedly asked not to do by the support staff. And in that instant of self-awareness, some combination of caffeine, hunger, and psilocybin combines to wake me to our reality like a slap in the face. You should remember, 'hallucinogen' is a misnomer. You don't see things that aren't there, you see things that were there the whole time that you've trained yourself not to see. Anything beyond a microdose and preconceptions fall away, all that pigeonholing of reality into conceptual chunks like inartfully translated poetry. Things like psilocybin let you bypass the cognitive shorthand you've learned since birth in order to deal with this nonsensical cathedral of human culture we've trapped ourselves in. I'm looking around wide-eyed and innocent. Somehow, needing to change careers has resulted in me standing here with thirty strangers in the night, packed shoulder to shoulder in a high-walled pen, solemnly ignoring each other's blank yearning faces while lights and cameras glare down from the fake walls of a fake bar decorated in a fake vision of Polynesian culture. We're being paid a small amount of money to pretend to be human beings —and isn't that just a metaphor for what being a human being is?! I take a drink from my mug and thank god this time its pineapple juice. Then someone yells 'background!', and time lurches into motion. There's me, that smartass with the bow tie, a proud grandmother of four and a brunette woman in an evening dress who's giving off 'swinging divorcee' vibes. But as I give in to the motions of pretending to relate to them, silently smiling and laughing, the anxiety melts away. One by one I look deep into their eyes and see through to the core of each person's soul. The shot involves what I think is a famous Wayans brother, playing a disgruntled pickup artist on Valentine’s Day. He tries to liven the scene with a few ad libs, which noticeably improves the dialog. Later, as we head back to the waiting area, an efficient-looking man in a Bluetooth headset taps me on the shoulder, shaking his head, wagging a finger. "We see what you're doing there guy." I'm pretty sure he was referring to the moment in the final shot when our grandmother silently told a joke and the irony of actually laughing at a pretend joke created a humor feedback loop that gave me stomach cramps as I tried so desperately not to laugh out loud that I almost fainted. He thinks I was showboating for attention, so I nod to reassure him it won't happen again, and we head to the portable dressing rooms to suit up. For the last half of the day, we'll be diners at a fancy restaurant. I walk out in my best wedding outfit and the wardrobe lady with a straight face tells me she likes my weird, quirky look. Before long we're gathered around picnic tables on the lawn near the stages and I'm watching James, the smartass with the bowtie, teach a regular from Sons of Anarchy how to tie a Windsor knot. It turns out James came from the Philippines six years ago to work in LA as a nurse. But he's already burned out from the hospital politics and the gruelling hours and thankless doctors. He's in the middle of a career transition himself, probably real estate. It's after midnight now, moonlight glinting on the rustling Magnolia branches in the silence of the empty lot, and it's clear that is some kind of modern-day bardo, the Buddhist realm between death and rebirth. Forty well-dressed souls in limbo, lit by the midnight moon, transitioning between lives or else waiting for this one to end. Our conversation drifts into philosophy and James tells me about the new age guru Eckhart Tolle with such eloquence that I order his book from Amazon then and there. The New Girl Soon the wranglers pair us off into male-female dyads. I take the elbow of a beautiful blonde in a black evening dress and we stroll down the sidewalk toward a building in the distance, not knowing each other or where exactly we're headed. Everything is a metaphor now. Her name is Susan and she just arrived from six months in Korea with her husband. We find ourselves in an immense dining room, sitting across from each other at a beautiful meal we're not allowed to eat (more metaphor!), while Zoey Deschanel and some handsome Euro-accented fellow with a well-trimmed beard film their dinner scene. We're far enough away to have a real conversation and I grill Susan about her life in Korea. She and her husband taught, explored the world, and are ready for the next stage of their lives. To take that leap into darkness confident the universe will catch you —I'm in awe. I get so engrossed in the conversation that for a good half hour I forget we're on a set. Eventually, the director decides we're distracting and removes our table, then around 4:30 in the morning, the pack of us are brought outside to slowly walk back and forth outside the window of the dining room to appear as blurry shapes behind Zoe's conversation. It's the last stage before rebirth, just flickering shadows at the edge of someone else's consciousness, and I'm so jazzed to begin my new life that I'm not even tired anymore. The day ends near 5 am, and a few cups of coffee later I'm heading up the 110 Freeway to begin learning what it means to be a Speech-Language Pathologist. Elisa was a wise and friendly professional who took me back through the elementary school where she worked to her office. And in half an hour I realize no way am I going to be a Speech-Language Pathologist. It's not that I don't like children. They're fine. I understand they're necessary. I just didn't fully comprehend how they'd dictate the entire workday. Elisa had an encyclopedic knowledge of how the physicality of the skull works to create sound, but she utilized that expertise eight hours a day playing speech games with seven-year-olds while taking notes about how they pronounce words like 'the.' My guess is, if you have strong parenting instincts this sort of thing isn't excruciating. But when I left that afternoon full of effusive thanks for her patience and generosity, Elisa could tell she would not be seeing me at any SLP conferences in the distant future. I was back in the bardo with no prospect for rebirth. But then, out of the blue, a call comes through from the human resources manager I used to work with. She wants to know if I'm interested in a hot new social media startup in Downtown LA. All she'll say is their name -- . Vixlet The next day an elevator rockets me silently to the Gas Company building's 50th floor. The view out the windows looks like you're landing at LAX. The company is owned by a husband and wife team and she walks into the conference room with a small entourage, lead by a new media guy named Justin who looks exactly like the person who'd play him in a commercial. Seek, coiffed, black glasses signifying intelligence. He scans me head to toe: Camper shoes, Ben Sherman shirt and jacket, Warby Parker glasses. I sense the tiniest acknowledgement, as if I've passed the minimum bar for acceptability. Everyone other than the boss looks like they've just graduated from one of those East Coast colleges you only know about if you're rich. We sit at an empty table and he gives me the spiel. Vixlet is a revolutionary new form of social media. They've got millions in the bank, and they literally want to take on Facebook. I keep waiting to show my work, but no one asks. They don't want me for design or user experience. They're starting a new Product Department that will somehow connect design and development, or give them direction, or something. I try to get more detail, but they're intentionally vague. After deflecting a few questions, a hyper-literate 20 year old tells me people succeed at this company if they’re able to adapt to a constantly changing environment. I get the hint and stop asking, even though I have no idea what skillset they're looking for. Eventually, they march out in unison like the East German swim team, and the head of the company makes an entrance, a hefty subcontinental Indian man with a magnetic personality and the voice of James Earl Jones. I stand as he takes my hand, doesn't let go, and looks deep into my eyes through to the very core of my soul. His name is Krishna. "You tell me, Randy," he says after a brief introduction, "when did social media begin?" It's clearly a rhetorical question, but he still wants an answer. "I don't know... Friendster?" "No. Randy." Still holding my hand. "More basic than that. Thousands of years before that, in fact, when that first human hand grabbed a bone and struck that first drum. That's social media. Communication!" It's clearly a prepared speech but he's good at it. Krishna fast forwards through the evolution of human interaction to this new, completely unprecedented developmental stage in the process that he alone has discovered --passion-based social media. Science tells us that the average American has over 50 passions; that's what'll connect us in the future, not the rough simulation of real world 'friendship' that Facebook offers. He talks about the insane growth hacking they're ready to begin, beating Facebook before they even know what happened. To be clear, I worked in online direct marketing so I know when someone's blowing smoke up my ass. But this was the first time I actually liked it. Somehow that recommendation from the head of human resources short-circuited the process. No one had ever hired me without looking at my work. --And who's to say they wouldn't change the world? I was employed by the company that made MySpace and they went from a few people in a row of cubicles down the hall to a $580 million dollar payout in just a few years on the backs of obsessive preteens without any design sense. Krishna asks me how much I'd need in order to walk to work skipping and singing every morning, and I tell him my previous salary. He stares into my eyes for a long while. “Randy. I believe we have a disconnect.” Eventually, Krishna hires me for thirty thousand less, with vague promises of stock options, but it doesn't matter because he's given me hope for the future. I'd emerged from darkness into a new career. It's not until a week later when I hear someone talking about me that I realize my title: Product Manager... Three years after that we're called to an 11 am meeting. I get a text from my friend Steve letting me know they'd deposited our paychecks early. "Looks like the new round of funding finally came through!" But the moment Krishna walks into the room I can tell it's over. He's genuinely heartbroken and seems ready to cry. "Take all the time you need." He bites his lower lip, either holding back tears or giving a very believable performance. "But make sure you turn in your laptops, as we no longer own them." I'd been a Product Manager for three years at that point and (arguably) been good at it for maybe a year and a half. After just a few months the head of the department left for Google when he realized the relentlessly hapless shitshow he'd signed up for, the new head of the department was fired for harassing the designers, one PM left for a better job and another moved to a different position in the company. I was the last PM standing. I had not in any way made the world a better place to live, but had almost certainly made it less bad than I would have, promising women they could look ten years younger through regular applications of cetacean placenta juice. Despite what they'd paid McKinsey a small fortune to tell us, we had a fundamentally flawed business model. Turns out virality is not a top-down phenomenon. At the end of the day, Vixlet was the startup equivalent of a secondhand Volkswagen piloted by a pack of bickering raccoons from on top of a mountain of investor cash. At first, it felt like we had a direction, but we were just careening downhill, finally slamming after a few short years into the desert hardpan below. It only cost me one minor heart attack (that turned out to be a panic attack), and constant low-level frustration and dismay, but after three years I'd developed a very particular set of skills that perhaps now I could put to good use.

How I Went from the Set of New Girl to a Startup Product Manager

Innovations in Tech Hold the Potential for a Bright Future and Infinite Progress

Don't we all need some good news after last night? I don't know what we were thinking, hoping it be anything short of a nail biter... If 2020 had taught us anything, is is if there were such a record-breaking, poll-defying (again), nightmare-inducing Election Night, if would absolutely happen in 2020. Stay tuned for more (slack+blogging) posts, like this. Thanks to my colleagues , & for contributing, and for his code-wangling. Slogging austin Dane Natasha Richard Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Some Good News- Election 2020 Edition austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM looks like michigan is leaning blue. wayne county, home of the motor city, might save us. also, i wasn't as tired as i thought i'd be, this morning. that was nice, especially considering i haven't been sleeping well the past several weeks. didn't wake up once, last night. 🎉 that's my personal good news haha Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Proposition 113 in Colorado looks like it’s gonna pass! We are 9 electoral votes closer to abolishing the electoral college for good. Sure we need 74 more but already 60 is pending. For those who don’t know, the National Popular Vote interstate compact is a pact among states (green in the map below) to give their electoral votes to whoever wins the popular votes, effectively ending electoral college. We need enough states making up 270 electoral votes to be in the pact to make this a reality. Colorado, our home state, looks like it will pass the bill to reinstate our membership in the pact. austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM woohoo! also, psilocybin aka "magic mushrooms" are now legal in oregon. which sounds stupid but it's actually shown to be an extremely effective treatment for depression and PTSD austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM oh! michigan now requires a warrant for searching phones! win for privacy! 👀 Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Our Democracy didn't just allow Trump to disenfranchise voters and claim illegitimate victory. It is still not a done deal but that speech last night was pure dystopia and it was not received well by the majority of the country. austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM fuck, i couldn't stay up for the speech...in the interest of good vibes, i'll watch it privately and discuss in another thread 🙂 Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM The whole squad won! austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM fuuuuck yeah i love rashida tlaib!! and AOC 😍 of course Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Colorado chose to not ban late term abortions. This is a huge win for human rights. Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM First ever trans gender senator elect (Delaware) Huge wins for LGBTQ and human rights austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM oh damn! nice! 😄 i need to catch up 😪 Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM California will restore voting rights to 50k former inmates! austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM it's about damn time 🙂 Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM I'm feeling pretty good about Mark Kelly and AZ right now. It's such a feel good story that he picked up the torch and is continuing the work of his wife Gabby Giffords after tragedy cut her career short. Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Mississippi- the last standing state with a confederate flag, will change its flag!!!!!!!! Omg I love this. Listen to the Radiolab episode the flag and the fury for more context Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM AZ is legalizing marijuana. austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM wow, was not expecting that one, the flag change. that's awesome Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Dane awesome! So will New Jersey! Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM More decriminalizing drugs in DC. It looks like we've finally realized we need to rethink the war on drugs. austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM right! and that means less mass incarceration for petty possession charges as well. so we've got that going for us, which is nice Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Utah finally realized slavery is not legal... in 2020 Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Some slightly good news out of FL. I honestly think raising the minimum wage to this level is a terrible solution. But it does slightly improve things for exploited workers so progress is better than no progress. Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM (Lol, Florida has a ceiling on what it can get right) Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM I can't believe Utah is voiding slavery in 2020. When are states going to start with reparations? Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Reparations have been wildly unpopular.... I mean some of these things I can’t believe still exist to this day. Dane Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM As I look through state propositions. I think it's generally positive that I'm not seeing too many red flags. There are a few but I'm seeing more positive than negative. Natasha Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM It is way cool that y'all get to vote on issues at election time. I wish South Africa had that! Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM That’s true! Perspectives! richard-kubina Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM "Utah finally realized enslaving people is some evil bullshit" right?  that you cannot enslave people period, even convicted criminals Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Right. I don’t think anyone still enslaves people in Utah to this day but the language makes it so. Treating slaves like criminals has been in the constitutions since day 1. You can also argue that criminals are the new slaves... austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM oh yeah, it's in the 13th amendment explicitly. slavery was abolished, except for prisoners. then they started making a bunch of laws to target people of color, specifically black folks, so they could throw them in prison. the prison industrial complex of today is unreal...their lobbyists have actually argued against drug reform because "it would reduce the prison population". why that's bad, i have no idea Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Not really good news but funny one. Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM (Gosh I hope this doesn’t change election for real since Biden’s margin in Wisconsin is so thin) austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Oh wow. My favorite part is the husband knows his wife is missing...but he’s still at work. Either his boss is a real stickler, or he doesn’t care his wife is missing...or my personal favorite scenario, she’s not sick she was murdered and the husband did it. (This is what you get from not sleeping right, people.) Linh Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM I like your third scenario lol austin Nov 4, 2020, 8:31 PM Right! It’s like an election murder mystery :male-detective:

Some Good News: Election 2020 Edition

Medical technologies are not limited to remote examinations, robotic surgical controllers and diagnostic algorithms. Today they transform mental health domain, specifically, work methods with patients and the doctor’s role. Mental health topic is hot as ever The problem of mental health is not new, however, its specifics and the comparative study novelty, it lacks attention. People around the world are better aware of “traditional” diseases and, even if they can be easily treated, they still raise more concerns. Society stigmatizes mental diseases. According to World Health Organization , every fourth person globally is exposed to psychological and mental issues at least once in a lifetime. report 900 million people are suffering from mental diseases today, and two-thirds make no attempts to seek qualified help. On average, 9 mental health professionals per 100,000 people in the world. In developing countries this indicator is less than 1, while in developed countries it sometimes surpasses 72. About there are The United States is the most studied market in terms of mental health. And this same country was the closest to technological breakthroughs in treatment area. According to the National Institute of Mental Health , one in five adult Americans (or 46.6 million people) suffers from all sorts of psychological and mental illnesses. report Who got the worst of it? Millennials and buzzers. Among young people aged 18–25 years, one in four or 25.8% have mental problems. People over 50 years old suffer least of all (13.8%). Overall, out of 46.6 million patients, only 42% sought any medical help. This is more than a medical problem. In the capitalist States, researchers have studied the impact mental problems have on the market. US economy $51 billion due to declining workforce productivity. Major mental illnesses (those complicating the fulfillment of key life and social functions) bring another $193.2 billion of lost profits per year to the economy. And in the UK, due to psychological and psychological issues, people about 70 million additional sick days each year. loses take The total losses from mental problems for the global economy in the next 20 years $16 trillion. This is much more than the "price" of any non-infectious disease. may exceed The scale of the situation resembles an epidemic. However, in the US, the solution to it is not treatment, but an interest surge in sedatives. The king of this market is Xanax. More specifically, a class of drugs called benzodiazepines on the basis of the active substance alprazolam. They briefly suppress anxiety and relieve fatigue. The number of Xanax prescriptions by 67% between 1996 and 2013, the consumption by 2016. Xanax is now regularly taken by up to 5% of all adult Americans. The drug has low tolerance, and together with opioid drugs, it becomes deadly dangerous. As a result, there’s been an increase in deaths from benzodiazepines overdose between 1999 and 2015. increased tripled eight-fold Technologies offer another perspective. Apps and far beyond Tech is not about digital hygiene or self-restraint. The treatment of mental problems from anxiety to clinical depression or bipolar disorder always rests on resources. Therapy is inaccessible to many, and even more scary because of stigma. But even short-term sessions with a specialist, are often not enough due to the nature of the disease. Mobile applications can turn things around. Startups, academic institutes, research labs are developing programs that use active patient data collection to diagnose the condition in real-time. These applications capture dangerous patterns and stabilize the patient through short-term interventions. is a solution brought by Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center. This is a scientific program for the treatment of schizophrenia, that had been over a year. The smartphone analyzes user behavior (launched applications, calls, SMS) and uses sensors (camera, GPS, microphone, accelerometer). The user should regularly report by answering 10 questions about own condition. The data is sent to the server for analysis and further issuing of a clear medical report. Collected data allows for timely response to behavioral changes, and sometimes even prevention of suicidal attempts. CrossCheck tested is an application from a Boston-based Cogito startup that helps identify potential mental issues: from social isolation to anxiety or psychological trauma. This program went through trial by combat: during testing in 2013, about 100 of its users in the area. The team was able to accurately record the increase of symptom fixation. Companion does not make a diagnosis on its own. Having doctor’s diagnosis, the app can notify of the threat of relapse, by MIT. Companion ended up Boston attack as stated is a California-based company founded by the former head of the Mental Health Institute. The of the same name works on the “digital siren” principle. The app and an alternative keyboard are installed on smartphones to monitor all patient’s activity. The focus is on borderline personality disorder. Patients are impulsive, they have anxiety and poor self-control. They are not aware of a stressful situation happening. Mindstrong application is also a Californian project that a network for quick patient care. The project employs and trains special operators for patient counseling. Today, there are 340,000 operators in 198 countries. If the situation is really serious, the patient is connected to a certified therapist. 90% of users feel better after an in-app session. 7 Cups creates Software developers are not the only ones to occupy mental health niche. The deep tech domain (technological products based on scientific research) is far more wider. For example, the London-based company intends to become the world's first medical psilocybin provider and treat depression, anxiety and other conditions. Compass Pathways According to , the idea is simple enough. Our brain, like any complex software, accumulates bugs over time due to incorrect blocks of code (in our case, individual neural connections). Substances such as psilocybin, taken in the right doses and under supervision, allows for brain reload. Where psychotherapy or serotonin stimulants fall short in battle with depression, this is a chance of survival. Bloomberg The project was founded by a graduate of the St. Petersburg Medical Academy Ekaterina Malevskaya and her husband George Goldsmith. The company has already raised $58 million investment and received permission from US regulators to conduct full-fledged clinical trials. If the tests are successful, the products may be approved for official medical use. To whom it may concern Mental health is highly relevant for mobile developers. According to , about 10,000 applications operate in the niche. But the majority of them does not rely on a serious scientific base, but rather streamlined wording about awareness and psychological peace. This of the University of Liverpool academics. The New York Times drew attention Scientists examined the of apps the National Health Service of England recommends for depression. Only 4 of them provide comparatively reliable evidence of effectiveness, and only 2 actually meet scientific standards. The utility of the remaining 85% of apps cannot be proved. They mainly rely on mindfulness practices: breathing exercises and meditation which is not yet considered a clinically proven and effective treatment for depression or anxiety. It might to cope with symptoms, but not more than that. list help Real scientific developments are more complex: CrossCheck has not yet completed the testing phase, Companion has been in it for 5 years. In turn, Mindstrong and 7 Cups work directly with the Californian authorities in a five-year program, which has received over $100-million funding, and endures ongoing medical and financial audits. Regulators led by the mighty FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) do not just confirm the “clinically effective” status. Especially when it comes to personal electronics. Progress is inevitable. According to insiders in the US medical field, the FDA is preparing to announce that applications will soon become part of medical protocols for determining mental illness. Recently, FDA launched Digital Health Innovation Action Plan providing regulatory framework for app developers. World Health Organization as well as UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence issued their guidelines on digital health technologies. Simply put, they will move from extravagant tests to reality. Simplifying mental assistance can save lives. There is a problem, there is a market. According to , an estimated $89 billion is spent on mental health treatment in the United States annually. This, for example, is almost twice as much as the cost pregnancy and childbirth, even considering that over 50% do not turn for help. CB Insights Investments are ballooning. During 2013–2017, about $0.6 billion was invested in mental health industry. In the second quarter of 2019 alone, the investment amount $321 million. A ‘boom in VC funding’, as by Pitchbook. reached being put Startups in this field have visited Y Combinator, Techstars and other accelerators. Investors fall for a clear and healthy business model. For example, the Talkspace application allows users to chat for $32 per week, and for $99 per week to have a video chat with therapists. SoftBank was among those who supported the project in $28 million round. Ginger.io project with similar functionality, but a more personalized approach, provides access for $129 — $350 per month. The project raised $28 million. Health and digital medicine are one of the hottest niches where you can hear the battle cry of tech giants like Apple and Google. Mental health, which is starting to be taken more seriously, looks like a particularly understandable and profitable area. There is proven potential for the use of smartphones, AI, digital communication. FDA approval will make things completely clear. Hundreds of millions of people will have a chance for therapy or even recovery. Smartphones will no longer be source of problems, but become their solution. To sum up, in the foreseeable future, we should expect the following trends: The boom of preventive measures where technologies will play a pivotal role. The diagnosis apps will work on the basis of scientific developments, and dataset will substantially boost their accuracy. A vast array of apps will be prescribed to patients ranging from VR applications for PTSD to for treating depression. games The prominent market players will increasingly partner with insurance companies. The new regulation is likely to come after the presidential elections. Warren, Murray and Smith, US senators, have been with the program, aiming to reinvent medical services regulation by shifting the focus from products to developers. dealing PreCert Much effort will be made to address data privacy issue and ensure due protection of sensitive information. Since the retention rates in mental health leave much to be desired, mental health applications will extensively rely on peer support techniques, which eventually will become a success factor and an enabler for gaining an upper hand. Yuri Filipchuk, partner at CYFRD investment firm, explains what this means for investors, entrepreneurs and all of us.

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