I have been running modafinil for five years and the honest summary is that the effect is smaller than the internet suggests and real.
I would rather have a narrow conclusion and be right than a broad one and be interesting.
Sample size, blinding, and who paid for it. Those three questions kill most of the confidence in most of these threads.
Tolerance builds fastest when it is taken for extra hours rather than extra work.
How do you separate the compound effect from the routine around it?
Narrow conclusion. How long have you been on modafinil?
Narrow conclusion, briefly right. Broad conclusion, interestingly wrong. I know which I keep choosing. Five years in on modafinil and it lines up.
How long before you can reasonably say something is or is not doing anything?
What is the first thing you would read if you were starting from zero?
How long before you can reasonably say something is or is not doing anything?
Test one thing at a time. It feels slower and it is the only way to learn anything.
Stupid question: how do you know whether what is in the vial matches the label at all?
Same here.
Read the methods section. It is the only part that says whether the conclusion is allowed to exist.