How cannabis, coffee, and exercise can put your brain in its most productive place
By Chris Taylor / Mashable / Nov. 7, 2019
I’m at the bar in what appears to be an Old West saloon, shooting the breeze with a guy from Nevada who sits on a stool in a dark corner, hiding from his fans, casually crumbling marijuana into his roll-up tobacco. As he does this, Nevada guy explains why weed, alongside the other drug we had that morning at camp, the psychoactive bean juice commonly known as coffee, provides a way into a brain state prized by athletes, monks, and every creative person ever.
The saloon and campground are actually on a business property — sorry, Institute — in the middle of Mendocino, California, ground zero for old-school outdoor pot production. The pot company is Flow Kana, which pitches itself as an organic farm-to-table service — a weed middleman, basically, and a rising star in the cannabis world. I’ve watched Flow Kana’s expansion up close, ever since I met its gregarious Venezualan-American CEO, Mikey Steinmetz, at his 2015 launch party at a home in the Berkeley Hills where the generous trays of joints and the excited conversations of VCs spoke of an industry being born.
Now, four years later, look at Mikey: founding an institute, constructing convincing Old West Saloons, filling fields full of fully-stocked glamping tents on a valley property of untold rolling acres. And down from the Saloon on a vast stage-tent setup, the centerpiece of a new content-first plan: Flow Talks, the weed industry’s answer to TED. Later, Mikey would bring on stage the event’s mystery guest: Snoop Dogg.
All respect to Snoop, but the true headliner of the talks was an expert in the fascinating brain state for which the company was named: flow. (Some say “in the zone,” musicians talk of “the pocket,” but we all know flow: that moment where time has no meaning and your ego vanishes and you just accomplish, effortlessly. Studies have shown that being in flow spikes levels of creativity and executive productivity, often for days after the flow state; DARPA says it lets you learn new things 490 percent faster.)
For the balance of this article, please go here.
{ 0 comments… add one now }