I was on one of those robotics teams, and I recall this document being passed around as suggested reading on that team. It’s probably worth considering that this was written in 2000, when it was a more niche topic, and was probably itself a part of what made PID programming more accessible in the first place.

PID design was on my undergrad Chem Eng 2nd year curriculum in the 90s. I took it the year Starcraft came out, so my grade suffered a bit.

I mean, Control Theory has been part of engineering cirricula for a lot longer than that. But the internet wasn't nearly as pervasive then, and Wikipedia wouldn't be founded until the next year.

I second the “experimenting” thing. I would recommend going caffeine free for a couple weeks every once in a while, just to kind of… keep track of the addiction. I’ll quit coffee occasionally, historically usually for a tolerance break if it’s getting a bit too much, or to just kind of “reset” my brain chemistry.

I ultimately found that reducing was a good idea, but I personally like coffee a lot and feel it adds something for me. I also have adhd though, so I’m probably playing with a slightly different deck on the “how stimulants interact with the brain” front.

I have found that having controls and limits around caffeine intake is a pretty good practice. I found that to reliably sleep well, I need to never drink caffeine after noon. And reducing my intake a bit helps as well. But from there, I haven’t seen much further benefit from quitting entirely.