There’s no magic pill for career success, but an increasingly vocal, if tiny, share of professionals swear a capsule of psilocybin or an infusion of ketamine comes pretty close. ILLUSTRATION: SAM KELLY/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Summary
A small but vocal share of workers swear ketamine and psychedelics can boost creativity and focus on the job.
So, what happens when the boss tries ketamine?
At insurance brokerage Frontier Risk, the remote team of 12 gets summoned to a weekly, hourlong video call that mostly involves watching each other work. People are free to talk, but there is no agenda.
The workers aren’t on drugs, but Chief Executive James Whitcomb hatched the idea for the sessions during a $1,000 psychedelic experience at a ketamine clinic in Connecticut.
His sober self would have dismissed the notion of sitting in shared silence as too woo-woo for the workplace, he says. On ketamine, however, he figured it was worth a try to spark unscripted moments of collaboration.
There’s no magic pill for career success, but an increasingly vocal, if tiny, share of professionals swear a capsule of psilocybin or an infusion of ketamine comes pretty close.As The Wall Street Journal has reported, a vanguard of Silicon Valley leaders and workers see psychedelics and similar substances as a creativity and productivity hack. And the legal status of ketamine and decriminalization of psilocybin, better known as magic mushrooms, in Oregon and Colorado, have lessened taboos around drug use.Psychedelics are beginning to find some adherents beyond Silicon Valley who say the drugs […]
Business tripping: The professionals trying drugs to get better at work