Coffee Contradictions

[alan2here]

Coffee, for being awake, focused and alert. I find it a relaxing and creative experience, but I'm subjective, one data point does not a sample make.

Research on Google Image for coffee adds exposed some rather odd results, here are the first 10.

Stay awake longer.
Tastes good.
Sex.
Variety and Creativity.
Wake up.
-
Original and Traditional.
Prevent your husband from beating you.
-

However coffee commercials I've seen often sell coffee as being a relaxing, social experience.

On the motivation when at work front, I imagine if it was acceptable to have a bear instead at work in the morning, many people would become more motivated too, but also be more likely to waste time, discuss non work related matters or try and bunk off.

I get the feeling that coffee for many makes even tedious work more enjoyable, "Coffee - Enjoy enjoying things your doing, even things you hate."

But I notice this as a contradiction, that with coffee, I can do things that need doing as opposed to things I want to do, and enjoy them, in that I can feel the emotion of enjoyment telling me I'm enjoying the thing, and I believe it, while at the same time, as strong as it was before, knowing that the task is tedious and, for lack of a better word, dumb, but necessary, with a gap in the middle, between the two contradicting certainties.

Edited November 4, 2014 by alan2here

[Phi for All]

Rather than being a stimulant, caffeine suppresses adenosine, which makes you drowsy and unfocused. I think it's the focus it gives us that makes it a relaxing social experience. I can relax with a client over coffee because I can focus on what they want and exclude all the other stuff I have to deal with on a daily basis. Feeling sharper and more on top of the situation makes me feel relaxed, does that make sense?

 

When I'm tired, I tend to have a hard time with focus, and all the stuff I still have to do looks like a big pile of work rather than individual jobs. Adenosine makes it all seem fuzzy and exhausting, something I can deal with after I've rested. Some caffeine lets me pick out what needs to be done next, no matter what it is or how tedious.

[alan2here]

Thanks, great insight, this explains a lot

 

I wonder if you get overcompensation of adenosine when it is no longer being suppressed?

 

I think I may actually get a big boost of adenosine from coffee and then a lack of it later, sometimes with an elevated level again the next day. The opposite of what should happen.

Edited November 6, 2014 by alan2here

[Phi for All]

I think I may actually get a big boost of adenosine from coffee and then a lack of it later, sometimes with an elevated level again the next day. The opposite of what should happen.

 

Adenosine looks for its receptors, and if it finds them it has the effect of making you drowsy. Caffeine looks for the same receptors, and if it finds them first, adenosine is blocked.

[fiveworlds]

Also note that coffee plus drugs can make them more potent than usual.

[iNow]

Adding to Phi's useful posts:

 

 

[Bill Angel]

One should be concerned about one's intake of caffeine if one suffers from high blood pressure. See http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/expert-answers/blood-pressure/faq-20058543

[iNow]

Perhaps more apropos... One should be concerned about my blood pressure if I suffer from a lack of caffeine.

[ajb]

Coffee is essential for doing mathematics...

 

It is a very sociable thing. I have been in two departments that have set coffee times. This can bring people that you would not normally meet, say through your group's seminars and similar. You can hear things and discuss this with experts outside of your immediate field. Now, of course we don't just discuss mathematics, sometime we go off on a tangent

[iNow]

^Lol. Rim shot! He's in town all week, folks. Don't forget to tip your servers.

[Phi for All]

Research on Google Image for coffee adds exposed some rather odd results, here are the first 10.

....

Prevent your husband from beating you.

 

Is this one supposed to be for sobering the husband up? "Give him some coffee because he's drunk and beating you!"

 

These guys don't know beans about coffee motivation. The last thing a wife-beater needs is focus and a surge of energy.

[imatfaal]

 

Is this one supposed to be for sobering the husband up? "Give him some coffee because he's drunk and beating you!"

 

These guys don't know beans about coffee motivation. The last thing a wife-beater needs is focus and a surge of energy.

 

You'll find both the give your husband good stuff or... and the give your husband decaff so he doesn't -

 

http://thebeanstalker.com/2011/300-vintage-coffee-ads-and-the-lessons-they-teach-us

 

There is a full size eagle, as shown in tsome of the last ads, in my favourite coffee shop in london - caffe vergnano of charing x road. silly prices but worth it once you taste it.