Ok I’m like 50% sure I solved ’s and ’s “why do top achievers all drink Diet Coke?” thing. 12oz Diet Coke contains 100mg phenylalanine, which is an indirect precursor to dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain.
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Tyrosine and phenylalanine are old in supplement form at around this dose as mild stimulants for this very reason - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylala …
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but they only really work when ingested as isolates and without other amino acids! The aspartame in diet soda is probably the only widely available source of isolated phenylalanine! Hell yeah!
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Whoa that’s crazy, and regular coke doesn’t have this?
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Nah, corn syrup instead of aspartame!
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Reminds me of this
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Pull quote for those that don’t want a 5 min read
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If this were true, competitive tech companies would stock Diet Coke instead of weird flavored waters. Unless it would make the workforce too powerful…
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Eh not sure markets are *that* efficient. And fwiw one of the few tech-ish offices I've been in did indeed have diet coke stocked!
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Maybe a dumb q, but what's the claim here? That phenylalanine actually helps facilitate high achievement? That top achievers are disproportionately drawn to drinks with nootropic effects?
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Not dumb - my initial tweets didn't include a well specified claim! If this theory is true, my best guess is several causal chains:
1. Phenylalanine -> black box of physiology -> improved energy and motivation -> “achievement”...
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