Gene Therapy Turns Slackers Into Workaholics 525
DrLudicrous writes "According to a recent Reuters article, scientists have been able to cause monkeys to stop procrastinating by blocking the development of a dopamine receptor in the brain. The net result- the monkeys turned into workaholics. An article has appeared in the online version of Nature. Apparently, monkeys, just like human beings, tend to slack off on tasks until the very last minute. They become quite adept at judging how long they have till they absolutely must complete these tasks. The original article appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. An additional blurb appears here courtesty of Science Blog." NIH has a press release.
Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:3, Funny)
Which begs the question, Would a million workaholic monkeys doing lab experiments be able to come up with a cure for cancer more quickly than the slacker human doctors?
Sorry. Didn't mean to get all philosophical.
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, monkey jokes. Many a comic has made a living off those.
Close but not quite. (Score:3, Informative)
Nope, it prompts the question, not begs the question. You would be begging the question if you declared that the million workaholic monkeys would come up with a cure for cancer more quickly because clearly they would work more per day.
That stupid phrase again! (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate it when philosophy types bring this up.
Look, even if you accept an archaic definition of the word beg (to assume) as still current (which it isn't) the phrase (as used in logic) still doesn't make sense. You're not assuming the question, you're assuming the answer to the question. So the phrase (in logic) should be "Assumes (or begs, if you must) the answer."
But even if you accept the logic falacy phrase as semsible (which it isn't) that still doesn't preclude other gramatically and semantically co
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
No, AOL has already disproved this hypothesis.
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
"Is this a dagger which I see before me..."
into
"omgwtflol!!1!"
to get the rough shakespearian equivilant.
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the key here is monkeys are a random string generator. You can't replace a random string generator with a stupid string generator and expect to get the same result.
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:3, Interesting)
The mythical monkey minute (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
"No Monkey every ammounted to anything in the history of Gene Therapy"..
Oh yeah? Well history is gonna change!
when will we start giving this stuff to our kids? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well Hitler... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thus, this would only have very limited benefits for anyone working a non-repetitive job. Might do wonders for garbage collectors though. The whole thing sniffs a little of "Brave New World".
Re:Well Hitler... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well Hitler... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well Hitler... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well Hitler... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well Hitler... (Score:3, Insightful)
Others smoke tobacco like crazy, others eat junk food loaded with chemicals, others drink booze, and so on. People drive cars and motorcycles like they were in a racing track. Others skip nights of sleep to dance all night, leading to deafne
Re:when will we start giving this stuff to our kid (Score:5, Interesting)
That seems to be exactly what this is about though. The work *is* the reward (feels good to get things done) when this D2 receptor gets zapped by their little DNA injection. A more difficult job and longer hours sounds like hell, but maybe in this altered state you'd actually enjoy that and find the challenge welcome.
I'll be the first to say that's no way to live, but many people are forced into that lifestyle anyway, so perhaps they can be helped to at least enjoy it without splattering their brains all over their office wall.
Re:when will we start giving this stuff to our kid (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, I agree with you, it is a sham that no matter how much more productive we are, it just ends up leading to more abuse. Of course, being a better slave never made anyone free.
Re:when will we start giving this stuff to our kid (Score:3, Funny)
Re:when will we start giving this stuff to our kid (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Asked when we might see it in humans (Score:5, Funny)
Reading Slashdot is procrastinating (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot is procrastinating?? (Score:3, Funny)
Let's rename this website to Slackdot...if it doesn't reflect a bunch of the readership, it'll reflect at least a handful of the dupe editors.
Imagine this.... (Score:3, Funny)
"Billy, go take your medicine...."
"Ahh... I'll do it tomorrow..."
Re:Imagine this.... (Score:2, Funny)
yeah and here on slashdot it's always : "bahh, i'll RTFA tomorow ... "
Re:Imagine this.... (Score:3, Insightful)
What now??!??! (Score:2, Funny)
Liar... Liar... [lies.com]
Re:What now??!??! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What now??!??! (Score:3, Funny)
J.R. "Bob" Dobbs would not approve. (Score:5, Funny)
Or, maybe, the members who don't have enough slack will have to undergo gene therapy in order to participate.
Sure, I can see it now: the High Priests of Slack will have a doping scandal.
Re:J.R. "Bob" Dobbs would not approve. (Score:5, Funny)
As with most 'normals' you severely mis-understand what is meant by "slack".
I would tell about what it really means, but that would mean a host of
Re:J.R. "Bob" Dobbs would not approve. (Score:3, Insightful)
So? I've got until 8661 to send in my $30! I can wait!
(Hey, it's not my fault that "Bob" read the damn date for the Arrival upside down and backwards.)
Worker Monkey (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
I can't wait... (Score:3, Funny)
mmmmmmmmm.
Re:I can't wait... (Score:5, Funny)
I was going to have the first post (Score:5, Funny)
Oh the audacity (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't it read "Apparently, human beings, just like monkeys, tend to slack off on tasks until the very last minute.
What with the evolution and all!
Re:Oh the audacity (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but meanwhile monkeys also evolved away from that branch point. It is theoretically possible that our common monkey ancestor still exists, unchanged, as a modern species. But it's not likely.
Re:Oh the audacity (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't hat branch collapse with so many jabbering apes sitting on it? Or maybe, it's just a very sturdy tree.
No, not that gene... (Score:2, Funny)
Half-Life ships! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh Great (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh Great (Score:5, Insightful)
ADD is not a black and white diagnosis but it is debilitating to many people. It prevents them from starting and finishing things which could be as simple as drawing a picture or remembering to feed their cat. Ritalin isn't a trend and ADD itself has had exposure in cases with children but research is beginning to show more and more that adults suffer from it too. The key point is "suffer", it's not about creative learning, it's about a hope for some sort of "normal" living where you don't put your keys in the kitchen and spend 30 minutes looking for them because you forgot where you put them.
Re:Oh Great (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Ritalin. I have to tell you, I think it's complete bullshit. The doctor who diagnosed me called me the "posterboy" for late ADD diagnosis. Yes, sometimes I have trouble finishing what I've started. My room is constantly a mess, and I lose things easily. However, I am an engineering student at a good university, and I get pretty good grades, too. I can buckle down and study when I need to, and I can finish my tasks if I put my mind to it. When I take Ritalin, I feel, for lack of a better word, zombified. Yes, I can focus on anything, but my personality changes. My friends can tell when I'm on my Ritalin, and because of the way it makes me feel, I've pretty much stopped taking it. It had no effect on my grades, it didn't make my room any cleaner, and it didn't help me find things. I really do believe that there are people who need Ritalin, and who are much worse off than me in their ADD. However, that doesn't stop Ritalin from being a trendy drug, and it doesn't change the fact that doctors are quick to diagnose ADD. I just believe that in many cases there are better solutions than drugs (or gene therapy) to problems, but as a society we are very quick to take the easy way out that a drug like that can provide.
Re:Oh Great (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh Great (Score:5, Interesting)
But, that's ADHD/ADD. While I'm not the parent poster, I share a similar experience. I'm a Computer Science major, and I've found is somewhat difficult to complete tasks - these are just tasks that are ones I place upon myself, with no set limit. These tasks (cleaning a room, making a small program, whatever) are almost never finished (unless it really bugs me, like my room is a complete mess right now); however, I can finish tasks that have a deadline (like an english paper, or the class project in my compiler design class, etc ...)
When I confronted my doctor on the subject, he didn't hesitate to disagnose it as ADHD. That's the problem we have: it's something elses fault. It's not because I'm a naturally lazy fuck (I would rather watch television all day than do something productive).
While you may actually have a serious problem with paying attention, that same problem only happens to me because I'm a lazy fuck, or I'm already concentrating on something; for example, when I'm driving, I find it VERY difficult to have a conversation with someone because I'm constantly asking "what did you say?" I don't count that as ADHD, I count that as a heuristic computer focusing on one task, then being forced to concentrate on multiple tasks.
Yet, my Doctor spent no more than three minutes to "diagnose" the problem.
Re:Oh Great (Score:3, Insightful)
I consider being hard to talk to while driving one of the hallmarks of a good driver... it shows you have your priorities straight.
Re:Oh Great (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh Great (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no scientific evidence backing nutritional treatment of autism. Evidence for it is entirely anecdotal. Usually the person who has improved under a special diet has also been undergoing other treatments such as behavioral therapy so causality is hard to establish. In addition, gaging improvement is pretty subjective.
Personally, I'm ve
It's a Brave New World (Score:5, Insightful)
Mental Disorder. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Mental Disorder. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mental Disorder. (Score:5, Funny)
IAAGC... (Score:3, Funny)
Sean
Re:Mental Disorder. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mental Disorder. (Score:3, Interesting)
Double agree. If we find widespread use of a genetically-determined behavior in ourselves and our close evolutionary relatives, the proper lesson is that there is survival benefit to this behavior. Grandparent probably got it right -- it's a talent for judging how much work needs to be done so you can conserve bioenergy and local resources.
Irony (Score:5, Funny)
What will happen to slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is this so bad.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I, for one, do not want to live in a world where slacking and procrastinating are eliminated by a pill.
Pez
Re:Why is this so bad.... (Score:3, Insightful)
What is so great about getting something done right away?
That you don't have that constant "hey, psst, remember, you need to do x!" reminder in your head, that you can't turn off.
Things cause less stress when you do them immediately.
Re:Why is this so bad.... (Score:3, Interesting)
For me, procrastination seems related to anxiety in some way. I know that I should start doing a task now, but I don't feel like it. Why don't I feel like it? Because thinking about starting the task puts me on edge. Maybe I'm afraid that there will be difficulties, or that something will go wrong, or that it will take longer than I think, or that the results will be disappointing (to me or - worse - to someone else). Could th
I wouldn't quite call them 'workaholics'... (Score:5, Interesting)
Later on in the article, it mentions how people with mental disorders cannot associate work with reward. It goes on to say that people with mania will often work very hard to a futile reward. Sort of like monkeys who pull levers all day.
In other words, have they created manic monkeys?
Now that Bangles song is stuck in my head... (Score:5, Funny)
The Speed of Dark (Score:3, Interesting)
Monkeys (Score:5, Funny)
The capitalism gene? (Score:3, Insightful)
Parents, make sure your fetus gets that gene therapy it'll need to compete in the global marketplace!
Oh yah, and try to enjoy life sometimes.
Slacking off may be an advantage, though (Score:5, Insightful)
Leave human beings alone and take beavers. Beavers are held up as a sort of Horatio Alger example of what hard work can bring to the humble, right? It's just not true. Beavers work pretty hard in the fall, to shore things up before winter -- but they take a long break during the height of the summer, during which they do stuff like swim upstream or downstream looking for other beaver colonies to party with and scouting for new lodge locations and stands of aspen they might want to snack on. A whole lot of their time is spent pretty easily; at most you'd say they were engaged in "open-ended planning" about how to build on that next addition to the lodge or whatever -- sort of like gardeners during the winter thinking out their next planting.
Evolution doesn't seem to favor supermotivated nose-to-the-grindstone workers any more than it produces superfast rabbits or superbig brains. Apparently a nice medium-fast rabbit is best. Someone who can work and play, both, is apparently the superior model of human.
(He said while posting to /. at work.)
Re:Slacking off may be an advantage, though (Score:5, Insightful)
It is impossible to create a biological model for procrastination because objectively there is no such thing as procrastination. Deciding that you are procrastinating always involves a value judgement that A would be a "better" way to spend your time than B.
What people experience when they "procrastinate" is conflicting priorities. Thus, most strategies people have for dealing with procrastination are ineffective, because they are chasing a will 'o the wisp. They say things to themselves like "I have to have more willpower" or "I have to be more disciplined", or "I have to manage my time better". What they really need to do is two things: learn to weigh their priorities more effectively when deciding how to spend their time, and learn to set their priorities more effectively by getting more empirical data. That way, when it's time to knock off an have a beer, you know it's the right thing to do and you can enjoy your beer rather than obsessing about what you aren't doing.
For example, you may be putting off cleaning up and organizing your desk, and maybe it bothers you. It's not the messy desk that's bothering you, it's the unresolved conflict between prioties for how you use your time. You have to ask yourself, how important is it to me to have a neat desk? What the advantages and disadvantages of using your time this way? Maybe you think one of the disadvantages is that it will suck spending your time filing stuff. You can try filling one or two things, then ask yourself, "Did that suck enough to outweigh the value of having my things organized?" If it does, then maybe you should spend your time readling slashdot instead.
It's kind of funny that this came up, because recently I changed my sig (see below) after thinking about procrastination. If you learn to think your priorities through, you often find surprising insights as to why you aren't doing something you "ought" to be doing. Once you take this stance towards procrastination, it seems incredibly obvious. So obvious that when I read the headline I thought to myself, "What could it possibly mean for monkeys to make better decisions about how they use their time?" Of course, what they did was the exact opposite: they screwed up the monkey's reward mechanisms so they couldn't weight rewards and costs of an activity effectively.
just what we need (Score:4, Insightful)
After the party dies down at the GOP and in the Management offices around the world, what's this going to do to our society? (Even presuming its effect on the economy is positive)
First, Workaholic parents put work before family. Now, I know some uber-management asshat somewhere is saying "Great!" but lets think about this for 1 microsecond at least. Parents working 23.5 hours per day -> kids raised by TV & school system -> not very smart kids, who (being workaholics) know everything about trig and all the lines of Hamlet. But, kids don't feel loved, and have lots of emotional/social problems (requiring more drugs & therapy). This is a good outcome? Noooo....
No matter how dedicated you are, after around 38 hours per week, your productivity dips. Yes, that means you with the Lexus and the gold Timex. Staring at your secretary's boobs doesn't count as "work".
Let's say that our society can adjust as needed (I'm not saying it could, I'm saying let's just say it did, nevermind how). Let's say productivity per worker DOES go up (cots in cubes, working weekends, and presume I'm wrong about diminishing returns of productivity). Great for business right? Well, yeah. Those of us/you who are already wealthy and have $$ in the market, might see a stock bump. Meanwhile, 15% of the workforce is laid off. Oh, yeah well.. at least my stock is up. That 15% isn't coming back. That's not gonna help the economy. It may or may not help the richest of the rich.
Now imagine what it's going to be like to be on this drug. You don't mind working 10 hours per day, cause your brain chemistry is in tune with that. Meanwhile, your home life goes to utter shit. Your spouse hates you. Your kids stop loving you. You'd go to church for solace (if you're that type) but, mandatory unpaid weekend overtime is enforced because "no one minds working overtime anymore, and if they do, they're fired and replaced before the workflow is impacted."
This might have an application, somewhere. But we should enact legislation NOWNOW NOW!!! to ensure that the use of this (or similar) drugs can NEVER become mandatory or even suggested.
Work-aholic... now where did that suffix come from?
Re:just what we need (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're the government, it's the ideal outcome. The solution is you raise taxes (the economy's growing, and your workers aren't working for rewards, so they can "afford" the cost), to hire more (drugged-up) maniacal teachers, to teach the unhappy (drugged-up) students, and of course, subsidize the pharmaceutical companies producing the stuff. A slave army 300,000,000 strong!
> Those of us/you who are already wealthy and have $$ in the market, might see a stock bump. Meanwhile, 15% of the workforce is laid off.
The government subsidizes the drug for the unemployed, and makes taking it a precondition of receiving welfare. The 15% will find something to do (even if it's just staying at home to farm Everquest loot 23 hours a day and eBaying it for a net of about $5/hour).
> Now imagine what it's going to be like to be on this drug. You don't mind working 10 hours per day, cause your brain chemistry is in tune with that. Meanwhile, your home life goes to utter shit. Your spouse hates you. Your kids stop loving you.
Your kids are working 10 hours a day in school, and don't mind, because their brain chemistry is also in tune with that.
And what the fuck is your spouse doing at home when she could be taking the drug and working 10 hours a day too?
She'll need to be working, especially with the taxes we'll all be paying for the army of zombified cops to hammer down on the defectives who react poorly to the drug.
From the standpoint of any government from Moscow to Beijing to Washington, this is a big win.
> This might have an application, somewhere. But we should enact legislation NOWNOW NOW!!! to ensure that the use of this (or similar) drugs can NEVER become mandatory or even suggested.
I agree. Because if Congress passes a law that says "Monkeydrug must NEVER become mandatory", all we need is to have a rider bill two years from now (when all the fuss has died down) that says "Remove the word NEVER from section 1924.86, paragraph (c), and inserts the word "after", followed by a date [two years from now plus a week] after the word "Mandatory".
Not a slacker gene! (Score:5, Informative)
What the experiment did here was essentially introduce a learning disorder into the primates, using a method to inhibit a dopamine (specific kind of neurotransmitter) generating process in a localized area. This made it impossible for the primates to connect the visual stimulus indicating the number of tasks remaining and the introduction of a reward - hence the completion criteria becomes effectively decoupled through this dissociation and they have no clue when they will be rewarded.
This does not translate well into humans, which have several other cues that can connect activity with the expectation of reward. The induced learning dissability would have to cover these as well, and would have a disastrous societal effect; no effective expectation of reward also translates to reduced expectation of punishment.
Alternatively this same behavior could be produced in the workplace without the chemistry by having managers arbitrarily provide discipline and praise. This technique has been known for some time, and even quantized into a specific practice (though without conscious concession to this premise as the genesis for the method) in the awful book "The One Minute Manager," whereby an environment is constructed to remove personal validation of the employees and place the entirety of that role on the manager, who is then free to act illogically (or semi-logically, personality and cluefulness depending) in their delivery of the same.
A comparison. (Score:5, Interesting)
Corporation that uses just in time logistics, so that it doesn't have to lease warehouse space, corporation that produces just enough to meet demand: A winner that everyone, shareholders and pundits, raves about.
Conclusion: It sucks to be a wage slave.
And in the meantime... (Score:3, Funny)
And in the meantime, we read
Detrimental effect on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Your new employment terms. (Score:5, Funny)
Section 2 Subsection 3.1
The employee, herein after known as the "code monkey" shall, at their own expense, take such measures as are necessary to ensure their dopamine receoptors are suppressed. Failure to take such action and to be in the office with unsuppressed receptors shall be deemed, at the company's discretion, as gross misconduct and subject to summary dismissal without notice.
Hey...we don't appreciate being called monkeys... (Score:5, Funny)
Infinitely Better? (Score:3, Funny)
"Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out." -- Arthur, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Risperdal helps me work (Score:5, Interesting)
Last fall when I was hallucinating and paranoid because of my schizoaffective disorder [geometricvisions.com], I was completely unable to focus on my work for several months, and got absolutely nothing done.
The psychiatrist I saw about it said that I had psychotic breakthrough symptoms, and this would make it difficult to concentrate. Such symptoms are the result of too much dopamine activity in the brain.
My dose was raised from 3 mg a day to 5, and after a few weeks of time off to recover, I was able to start working productively again.
Slacking is the root of all progress (Score:5, Insightful)
Or in technical terms "quality of life".
Runnning water is great, now we don't have to carry buckets from the well, washing machines are great, now we don't need to stand around all day bent over a washboard, etc, etc...
The predominant measure of quality of life is how much time is spent on relaxation/recreation v/s work. By genetically redefining the meaning of quality of life, we threaten that which has driven all human progress.
If, at a genetic level, I _enjoy_ spending 12 hours bent over a washboard, what motivation is there to develop a washing machine?
If no one will buy the new widget that saves them 15 minutes doing task X, what motivation is there for a company to spend money on R & D to develop the time saving widget?
In closing, let me be the first to welcome our new hypo-manic overlords... the lithium is in the fridge.
Re:Slacking is the root of all progress (Score:3)
OK, so let's say I invent a new lawnmower so I can cut the grass in half the time. Does that mean I now spend that half drinking beer? Maybe, but it also means I can spend that other half pruning bushes or something, and overall I can get *more* work done. That's not a symptom of laziness, its a desire to get more things accomplished.
As a sysadmin, do you write that perl script cause you're lazy? No, you write it so that repetetive task can get done quickly w
Never for our benefit - always for somebody else (Score:5, Insightful)
Why CANT we do research on human enhancement? What's ethically wrong with looking for ways to make us "Better...stronger...faster...smarter" by science? It's as if there is some un-written rule somewhere that most medical researchers that say " Though shalt not ever engage in research for the purpose of enhancing humans over the norm"
Because Early Abusers Poisoned the Concepts (Score:3, Insightful)
Because western society is still smarting from early abuses of the concept of Eugenics (as applied to humans), and the rhetorical hijacking of such notions, by such toxic reg
Re:Because Early Abusers Poisoned the Concepts (Score:3, Interesting)
A good example that many college students know is Ritalin (Methylphenidate ). I'm just using this as an example, there are others. Ritalin is fairly safe (you can argue this point, but the drug has been on the market for a LONG time). It's well documented that Methylphenidate i
Re:Because Early Abusers Poisoned the Concepts (Score:3, Informative)
Nope, get a doctor to prescribe it to you and you can legally take it. A whole lot of drugs are prescribed for things that they are not approved for. The approval only determines what the drug can be marketed for. (Pfizer just got sued over this, I think it was neurontin, but they have so man drugs, it is hard to remember)
Evolutionary Benefit to Slacking? (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno what it would be, but it seems that it is a theme. Maybe it's conservation of energy... only take actions you HAVE to take, instead of stressing your body unnecisarilly (sic (i know it's WAY off, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Which fits my point nicely.))...
We spend all this time making technology to make ourselves more efficient, but we dont use that efficiency to work less... we use it to work more. Which is stupid. I don't believe my reason for being on this earth is to buckle down and do more work. I think its to learn and play and do interesting things. Which I suppose is why all the truly happy people have jobs that are exactly what they do for fun too. They play all the time.
Renewable Resources + Proper Planning + Automation = Semi-Permanent vacation. (in a utopic idealist vision anyway)
Oh well.. I hope there was a coherent point in there somewhere. But it's doubtful.
Laziness is powerful (Score:3, Insightful)
I keep my flat clean and organized since I hate searching thru all the cupboards for the carkeys.
I write shellscripts that make my work easier and if only I was smarter I would invent something really useful that makes all our lifes easier (like the car or the microwave). Most inventions are there to have more time for laziness. Never underestimate the power of laziness.
Ah, the Paradox Pill (Score:3, Interesting)
So here's the question: If I have so much trouble staying on-task that I can't finish a major project on which my reputation, credibility, and livlihood depend, when am I going to get around to heading to the nearest facility to offer this gene-therapy treatment? Even if it was in a pill form, it would probably be prescription only, and even if it was OTC, I'd still have to go to the pharmacy.
So, it seems likely that, if this ever sees the light of day in humans, we'll be getting a lot of instances of "Quick, I need that DontputitoffXL treatment, and I need it by 3:30 today!"
I Can See the Marketing Slogan Now (Score:3, Interesting)
Because Our Techno-Dystopia Isn't Hellish Enough.
How long 'til this becomes mandatory for employment? Or citizenship?
Me? Pessimistic? Nah.
Why is this a bad thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
How exactly is this a bad thing? Seriously I know some true workaholics, depressed people who never take time off to relax because they are always pushing themselves to be earlier and earlier and to get yet more things done. Typically the end being acheived is overshadowed by the need to "do" the need to push more units rather than acheive any real effect or even get a good night's sleep. Depressed dot commers, or office slaves who consume a lot of booze.
The article states that the monkeys are very good at judging just how long each task will take and then, it seems, they do it when necessary. You call it slacking, I call it a combination of good time management and gathering roses while one may. Why should it be the case that everyone be working so far in advance that they burn out like true workaholics?
IMHO you shouldn't call someone a slacker unless they do nothing, and you shouldn't conclude that not working 24/7 is a sign of poor character, poor genes, or some disease that needs to be "fixed."
I'm in agreement with the other posters who compared this to Ritalin for ADD kids. Just another non-disease that was manufactured from hysteria and stupidity not real need.
How the APA lusts for this (Score:3, Informative)
The American Psychiatric Association invents diagnoses to perpetuate an industry geared to helping people with these newly discovered and (conveniently) medicinally treatable "diseases." They invent problems. This is discussed in depth in Making Us Crazy [ftrbooks.net] By Herb Kutchins, but alternate forms of therapy have been discussed for decades (see Jean Piaget, for example). Undeniably, some severe conditions like Schizophrenia are treatable within the Psychiatric paradigm. Most more pedestrain difficulties--bipolar, depression, ADHD, homosexuality (oh wait, the DSM finally stopped classifying that as mental illness in the 3rd edition!) are best treated with cognitive behavioral therapy. Change the behavior and you change the brain chemistry. Psychotropics are terribly harmful and do nothing to address the underlying behavior that's causing the difficulties.
It's not inflamatory or wild speculation to say that if this discovery with monkeys makes its way to a human treatment, that it will thrust upon every bored 10 year old who's lacking challenge.
This message has been brought to you by a person who was diagnosed with ADHD at 15, took ritalin in high school at 16, and who finally, through behavioral changes in his 20s, was retested at 27 and can no longer be diagnosed with ADHD.
Will this hurt or help the NIH federal budget... (Score:3, Funny)
In other news.... (Score:3, Funny)
Gee, just like Amphetamine (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Am I a monkey..... (Score:5, Funny)
They don't need to properly understand it. They can be your boss anyway.
This Just In... (Score:5, Funny)
Dateline 2004.08.12...
Shares of the popular slacker/hacker website Slashdot fell 97% this morning on news that gene therapy can cure procrastination.
(c) 2004 Reuters