Apple CEO Steve Jobs is rumored to have dropped a little acid in his day, and apparently Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD, knew it. In fact, Hofmann reportedly wrote a letter to Jobs asking if the he’d be willing to donate some cash to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organization dedicated to investigating the psychological and medical benefits of psychedelic drugs.
A Huffington Post article brings us the original letter and a little background on the relationship between drugs like LSD and successful computer scientists:
Psychedelic drugs… pushed the computer and Internet revolutions forward by showing folks that reality can be profoundly altered through unconventional, highly intuitive thinking. Douglas Engelbart is one example of a psychonaut who did just that: he helped invent the mouse. Apple’s Jobs has said that Microsoft’s Bill Gates, would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once.” In a 1994 interview with Playboy, however, Gates coyly didn’t deny having dosed as a young man.
Thinking differently—or learning to Think Different, as a Jobs slogan has it—is a hallmark of the acid experience. “When I’m on LSD and hearing something that’s pure rhythm, it takes me to another world and into anther brain state where I’ve stopped thinking and started knowing,” Kevin Herbert told Wired magazine at a symposium commemorating Hofmann’s one hundredth birthday. Herbert, an early employee of Cisco Systems who successfully banned drug testing of technologists at the company, reportedly “solved his toughest technical problems while tripping to drum solos by the Grateful Dead.”
Far out, dude.
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Image: flickr / nyki_m
July 10th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Thank God Bill never did.
I have to use Windows every day and it’s nightmarish enough trip already. Imagine that with a touch of acid ? Don’t even think about it.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hahaha, if Bill dropped acid windows might actually work correctly. Steve knows what’s up. His system is 20 times more stable then Bill’s. Good thought there man, but honestly if you think that you did not get the point of the article! The point is that people on LSD come up with better solutions then people not because you can think outside the box. If you need to think outside “the box” LSD is one of the only ways to do it. Look at Nicola Tesla, he was hallucinating 90% of the day naturally. He came up with over 700 patents. Physcadelics are the link to the future and the past, they open up realms you couldn’t get to otherwise. So, if want to come up with something profound, take some LSD and think! Come up with something and change the world as we know it. It’s up to you! LSD is not for parties, festivals, or recreation. It’s to better humans and the world. If you think LSD is just for fun you lost the point!!! Eat LSD and better the world like these guys did! Peace and happiness…
October 27th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
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