Anyone who knows me, knows that I am really passionate about doing things which optimise performance in whatever method possible (thinking, creativity, fitness performance etc).

Now my friend Mark Joyner (of Simpleology fame), has put out a free ebook which is actually looking to reverse engineering the NZT drug through the testing and recommendation of different Nootropics (smart drugs).

http://www.simpleology.com/blog/2013/07/the-story-of-dreu-episode-3-the-real-limitless-pill.html

From my own testing, from a cognitive perspective, I also agree that the basics of

• Sleep
• Exercice
• Management of Stress
• Nutrition
• Hydration

In addition to the recommendations from Mark, I have also found the following stack really helpful for general cognitive function as well as energy and focus:

• Superpump Max (The earlier Superpump 250 was actually better, but one of the ingredients has now been moved to prescription only).
• Alpha Hydroxy Acid
• L-Glutamine
• L-Carnitine

This was what I posted in reply to Mark on Facebook, and thought to include some more comments on general “Superhuman cognitive hacking”

Superpump 250 has been awesome for cognitive function, energy and focus, though I have a nagging feeling that my memory may have been impacted (I usually have a pretty perfect, but I wasnt sure it was stress related memory loss). I spent about 6 hours researching it as I couldnt believe it would be long term healthy given how much of a boost I had got from it, and I couldnt find bad long term feedback from any of the forums etc. Steady, calm and heaps of energy and focus.

Regarding Binaural, I have used the Brainwave Mind tuner and AmbiSci Ult apps, and they have been really good (meditation, sleep and creative and focus modes) I had a coding problem which had me stumped for 3 days, and I had it beaten in 20 mins of “concentration” mode. 

Regarding biofeedback (and in particular the EEG), there is the  (build it yourself), or the made uphttp://www.emotiv.com/ version which comes with a SDK so you can build whatever games or tests you like – this is firmly on my xmas list!

>With the sensory deprivation stuff, I have found that you don’t need to cut the ping pong ball down if you just use cotton wool and masking tape them over your eyes. Also you can use the binaural “deep relaxation” instead of white noise – though the app has the mode to increase the whitenoise)

I have chatted with the owners of http://www.quantified-mind.com/ and that is a stunning bit of software, allowing you to split test various test on cognitive function and I could see how different levels of awake at different days helped me to map out my coding, email and selling modes as they happen at different times of day.

From my own perspective, keeping my immune health solid, is something that has probably the largest impact on my overall energy, and I have found taking temperature measurements interesting to detect drops in internal body temp, as well as seeing a clear map of circadian rhythm – this thing looks pretty stunning Modafinil (a focus and wakefulness promoting drug).