VANCOUVER ISLAND, Canada -- In Silicon Valley, your mind is your fortune, and some tech wizards are turning to so-called smart drugs to try to become the next Bill Gates.
Many in the Valley experiment with so-called secret weapons-- drug cocktails.
“I look back to my college days where we had beer bongs it’s exactly the same technique,” said Dave Asprey. “I have some of the most expensive pee on the planet."
Asprey is the CEO of Bulletproof. He's an entrepreneur, and he's also known for experimenting with drugs -- the smart ones.
“What I'm trying to do is age less quickly, but most importantly, I’m working on having the most energy and having a brain that works really, really well because when I weighed 300 pounds I was having really bad problems with brain fog. As an entrepreneur that's a problem,” Asprey said.
The combo he's downing is referred to as a stack. A collection of smart drugs, also call nootropics. They're aimed at enhancing your brain. They could be anything, from a stimulant like coffee to a prescription drug.
Nootropics, smart drugs, whatever you choose to call them, users say they enhance your brain, and subsequently your body's performance. They've become a thing in the tech world in part because of the high level of competition, in part because of the long hours, but it all boiled down to this way of life called bio-hacking.
Bio-hacking is the idea that we can control our own biology and we can program it to maximize results.
But it’s hard to know how safe nootropics are. People using these enhancers can suffer from side-effects. Headaches, insomnia, nausea; and many of the drugs haven't been studied.
"I’ve used every class of drug you can imagine,” said Tim Ferris, entrepreneur and investor. “I've used the modafinils of the world.. the list goes on and on."
Tim’s body is essentially a living lab. He also practices bio-hacking. Anything that can control or improve any part of his body, he'll try, there are no limits.
Here in Silicon Valley you are your own athlete, you're only as good as your mind and smart drugs are a way that entrepreneurs are helping achieve that marathon.
“Just like an Olympic athlete who is willing to do almost anything, even if shortens their life by five years to get a gold medal, you're gonna think about what pills and potions you could take because of the difference between making a million dollars and making a billion dollars is right here (points to head),” Ferris said.
Let’s look in ten. fifteen years if you do have some horrific side effects will it have been worth it?
"I've had some side effects,” Asprey said. “When I was developing a bolder diet I tried an extreme for of ketosis and it gave me some food allergies I didn't have before and I'm still working to reverse those, so, things happen but I had food allergies before that, just to different foods, so it was a relatively small risk.”
“If I do find out down the road that there are some side effects will it have been worth it? Yes, it will have been worth it. The quality of my life every day is so much higher now than it was ten years ago that its priceless,” Asprey said.
