Venture capitalist Marc Andreesen has been writing about his decision to βpause alcoholβ six months ago. Both the first On Pausing Alcohol post and the next dayβs followup are worth reading, but the latter is far more interesting. If youβre a Dry Atlas newsletter reader, nothing in Andreesenβs first post will be news to you.
Followup On Pausing Alcohol comprises merely a list of questions Andreesen received regarding his original post and his answers to them. The audience questions he responds to are familiar based on what we hear from our customers at Spirited Away, so I wanted to provide my take on a few of them as well.
Why did I stop drinking?Β
Marc: 1/3 watching the collapse of ~all the scientific studies[*] that claimed to prove health benefits of alcohol; 1/3 the wonderful/terrible Andrew Huberman podcast; 1/3 I got tired of dragging during the day, and discovered through experimentation that even a single drink the night before was interfering with the next day.
Douglas: My choice to reduce booze was and is 95% driven by how much better I feel. Since Iβve made that decision, evidence in support of it continues to accumulate, which is convenient, but Iβd probably keep abstaining just based on personal experience even if the studies didnβt bolster that decision. Now I just feel even better about it.
Was it hard to stop?Β
Marc: No, not at all. Iβm apparently missing the genetic predisposition to addiction to at least alcohol. My friends would say I am addicted to other things, but those seem to be mostly productive obsessions. Obviously many other people have a different experience when they try to stop drinking.
Douglas: Iβm in the same boat here: I feel no addiction to booze. Iβve worried in the past about how to talk about that given how many people are affected by alcoholβs addictive properties. Maybe itβs as simple as being honest about my personal experience while also acknowledging that many people have very different experiences.Β
Iβm not immune to addiction; sugar in particular I find hard to eliminate.
Why not drink a little on weekends?Β
Marc: At least for me, itβs easier to either have a habit or not have it, than try to straddle.
Douglas: I flip this question right back around: βWhy drink on the weekends either?β
In my experience, moderation is a gateway drug to abstinence. If I feel great during the week due to pausing alcohol, why would I want those good feelings to stop on the weekend?
What replaces the ritual of drinking?Β
Marc: I have found green tea to actually work very well. Also, complaining.
Douglas: I like green tea when Iβm by myself but I find that thereβs something about drinking the same kind of thing together as a group thatβs enjoyable. Letβs all have a glass of red wine together (make mine de-alcoholized, but weβre all having wine.) If itβs a summer rooftop party with a cooler full of beers, I want to grab a cold Athletic, not to sip a hot cup of tea. Everyone should drink whatever they want to, but part of what I love about the ~800 drinks on Dry Atlas is how seamlessly they segue into our existing social gatherings and rituals.
Isnβt alcohol fundamental to human history?
Marc: Absolutely. Many books have been written about the role alcohol played throughout the development of civilization. For a long time, alcohol was how you got water that was safe to drink. Also for a long time, distilled alcohol was the most effective way to transport and sell grain crops β George Washington grew and sold rye this way. And alcohol has been key to cultural formation and social bonding for many centuries, as you see in the history of the Greeks and Romans. But none of that means itβs good for ME. And the transition from alcohol to caffeine during the 1600s and 1700s in Europe seems to have catalyzed the Enlightenment, so.
Douglas: βBut none of that means itβs good for ME.β Exactly.
Would 20th century America have turned out differently had cannabis been legal this whole time and alcohol banned?Β
Marc: Yes, I think so. Less violent, for sure. As dynamic, probably not. Better or worse? I have no idea. A timely question as our own culture seems to be shifting from alcohol to pot right now.
Douglas: Personally Iβm not a huge fan of cannabis but itβs almost certainly less societally harmful than alcohol. Of course both alcohol and cannabis should be legal, but if I could swap those two legalities and replay the 20th century, I would.
Somewhat relatedly, itβs also interesting to think about hallucinogens like psilocybin, LSD and DMT, which may be the least societally harmful of all despite being the most illegal. They are also increasingly being studied for everything from overcoming addiction to relieving depression and anxiety to communicating with alien beings.
Is there a brewing fad of not drinking in Silicon Valley?
Marc: Yes, for sure. However, it seems to be running parallel to much more use of cannabis and hallucinogens, at least on the West Coast. So itβs not exactly asceticism.
Douglas: Yes but this is not just a coastal movement. Everywhere in the world there are mindful, freethinking individuals choosing whatβs best for them instead of following the status quo. From Nolita, Manhattan to Norris, Tennessee, our community is making thoughtful choices and demanding better options.
Whatβs the best counterargument to all this?Β
Marc: That life is not lived to be safe, that alcohol helps people bond, mate, and reproduce, that alcohol encourages people to fight and fighting drives civilization forward. That men and women should work hard and then play hard, the Greeks had their Dionysia and the Romans their Bacchanalia, and we should too. Frankly, over the long sweep of human affairs, this is probably right, but Iβm still not drinking for a while.
Douglas: I donβt disagree with any of those and I think βWhatβs the counterargument?β is a question well worth asking. Socializing is critical to the human experience and if the adult non-alc / βsober curiousβ movement results in any less socializing, or in forging less meaningful social connections, weβve failed. I think and hope what weβre doing is creating healthier, more meaningful social bonds but only time will tell. This movement is still very young.
Footnote
Marc: [*] It really is striking/shocking how completely this whole area of scientific research has collapsed. This is part of the generalized replication crisis thatβs ripping through science. More to come on this. TLDR, is it is no longer crazy or even particularly controversial to say that most of what we know as science is simply fake.
Douglas: Mic drop
