Quantified Minds in an Optimized World

The quantified-self movement is hardly a covert phenomenon. From the Garmin watches people flaunt on their wrists, to the dizzying array of smartphone apps for tracking eating habits, lifestyle data has garnered infectious appeal. But it isn’t just about gathering information—it’s about using the data to maximize your potential.

While Garmin watches and lifestyle apps are fairly ubiquitous, a separate sector of the market is taking optimization to new heights: neuromodulation. Within this field is a plethora of consumer products, ranging from neurostimulation devices, to EEG neurofeedback headsets, to cognitive enhancement pills. Although these products differ in structure and function, they are united by a common rhetoric of harnessing mental resources to become your optimal self. Take the FocusBand, one of the many EEG neurofeedback headsets on the market. By monitoring and regulating brainwaves, users can allegedly optimize everything from baseball pitching, to meditation practices, to engagement among coworkers. As the company puts it, “draw from the power inside of you” and “master your mind.”

With a 30 second scan of almost any product in the realm of “consumerized neuromodulation,” it is hard to not feel bombarded by this optimization language. But how much of that is purely a marketing tactic, as opposed to a genuine reflection of the quantified-self craze? While some companies are likely just capitalizing on general interest in this space, others are most definitely devout worshippers of the quantified-self doctrine. For perhaps the most quintessential example possible, let me introduce you to Nootrobox, an up-and-coming cognitive enhancement supplement.

Using sleek and simple packaging, Nootrobox cherry-picks ingredients from the FDA’s list of “generally regarded as safe” substances to provide precisely measured pills and gummies that promise to energize your mind or ease you to sleep. For instance, their “Yawn” pills combine melatonin, magnesium citrate, glycine, and L-theanine to improve your sleep experience from start to finish. On their website, curious minds can click on the listed ingredients (alongside their exact quantities) and be directed to existing literature on the substance in question. Waiting for the connection to quantified-self? Nootrobox’s website provides viewers with a “Biohacker’s Guide” to cognitive enhancement—and rest assured, the Nootrobox team is anything but QSINO (which stands for Quantified Self in Name Only, obviously).

How do I know? I recently had the fortune of attending a Nootrobox Launch Party for their newest product, Go Cubes (which are like gummy vitamins, but in caffeine form). Close your eyes and picture a room with miracle berries to make lemons taste sweet, a hoverboard to get you from one spot to another, a sous vide cooker to boil eggs to perfection, and a ceiling fan to make it rain jelly beans all night long. Just kidding on that last item, but the miracle berries, hoverboard, and sous vide cooker were all present at the event, as were the four local members of the Nootrobox team, their large group of loyal friends, and a smattering of random biohacking enthusiasts.

As bizarre as this sounds, it actually makes perfect sense. Each of these sparkly attractions represent off-beat, simple, efficient, and high-tech methods to maximize some aspect of your life, whether it be the experience of your taste buds or your mode of transportation.

And that’s exactly what Nootrobox’s products are designed to do—maximize energy and cognitive function with minimal time and effort. Even the name “Go Cubes” reflects this mission. Now, as someone who cherishes the mere concept of a hot latte each morning, I have trouble understanding the appeal of a pill or cube. When I expressed these sentiments to Michael Brandt, Nootrobox’s COO and co-founder, he in turn had trouble understanding my confusion. To him, and the rest of his group, a precisely-measured, low-calorie, fast-acting, and portable form of caffeine is the holy grail.

It took me just a few more conversations to grasp the extent of this dogma. Geoffrey Woo, the CEO and other co-founder, mentioned that the Nootrobox team intermittently fasts together for one day each week to optimize their metabolic systems. Paul Benigeri, their resident Engineer, told me he eats sous vide eggs (accompanied by “Rise” Nootrobox pills) every morning except Tuesday, to enjoy the creamiest, softest eggs that a machine can deliver. (Why not Tuesdays, you wonder? Intermittent fasting day? Bingo). When I asked what was next in the Nootrobox pipeline, Brandt expressed his vision for “Chill cubes,” a cannabinoid gummy that provides the mood-altering effects of marijuana in an any-time, any-place fashion.

Granted, not all consumer neuromodulation products, or users, aim to fit this mold. Nootrobox is certainly on one extreme, and has rightfully, in my opinion, been compared to the king of nutritional optimization, Soylent. That said, the ideals of optimization permeate the entire umbrella of consumer neuromodulation products, inviting users to reach their potential from the inside out.

On the surface, this sounds like a relatively harmless, and unsurprising, move–neuromodulation companies are just capitalizing on a current cultural craze. But tracking and optimizing neural function is different than counting steps or calories. The brain plays at least some role in every behavior. If you find your FitBit-obsessed friend annoying, think about the endless activities that people will seek to track and optimize with neuromodulation products, especially when they are marketed from a “lifestyle” angle.

But the larger issue is the flip side of the coin. Given that the brain is involved in so many functions, monitoring brainwaves or nootropic ingredients, and focusing on mental outputs, is neither a straightforward task nor a sure path to optimization. While the optimization aficionados at Nootrobox might “biohack” with no sweat since they live and breathe optimization, this mission might not be sustainable for the garden-variety neuromodulation peruser. So what’s the bottom line? Striving to be your best and understanding your body are great goals to have. But don’t be fooled by the democratized, optimization-for-all mantra of consumer neuromodulation companies—you might harness something, but it will likely not be your mind.