Working fast: how entrepreneurs are hacking themselves

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Silicon Valley, the home of tech disruption and birthplace of Facebook, Uber and Airbnb, is full of people who want to optimise, adapt and reinvent processes and industries. Now, biohacking – the practice of manipulating your body’s biology to aid performance – is gaining traction there. It seems unsurprising; if your life revolves around optimisation, it follows that this might also extend to the human body and brain.

Biohacking is taking two distinct forms in the Valley: extreme fasting, when a person refrains from eating for up to 60 hours; and the use of ‘brain drugs’ – or mind enhancers – to boost memory and cognitive performance. Both have proponents in search of a means to rewire their body’s physiological and neurological systems to prime them for productivity. 

Self-improvement isn’t a new phenomenon. People have been fasting for years for weight loss, while drugs such as modafinil have been used by some to boost concentration. However, ...