Recently I saw the movie Limitless, a recent sci-fi action story about a man who goes from an unmotivated writer to a hyper-intelligent successful analyst and trader, thanks to some new drug.

It’s a pretty trodden path in terms of stories, and the latest incarnation was OK.  Not amazing, not totally a waste of time, just OK.

The movie did remind me of a similar story, one of my favorite stories from middle school: Flowers for Algernon.  This story dates back to the 1960s, and it has a similar theme.

I think the reason this story keeps getting re-made into other stories and movies is that the basic idea is so alluring: imagine you could take a drug to make you that much smarter, without side effects.  The world would be a better place, right?  😉

Unfortunately so far there’s no such drug without disastrous side effects… As far as we know…