With its gorgeous office space in Brooklyn, New York, and quirky office culture, Etsy, the online marketplace that specializes in crafts and other artistic items, is a pretty desirable place to work — at least that's what about 75% of employees say on Glassdoor.

But if you want to make it into the inner drum circle, you'll have to answer a few tricky questions first.

Using Glassdoor's information about Etsy, we've compiled some of the most difficult questions that people say they've been asked while interviewing for the company.

Some of them may leave you scratching your head.

SEE ALSO: 13 of the weirdest interview questions you'll hear in Silicon Valley

"How would your fellow employees know you were under pressure without you telling them?"— Manager candidate

"Why have you been with your organization for so long?"— Project Management candidate

"Give a detailed description of something wrong with the site and/or web app."— Product Quality Analyst candidate

If you're planning a trip to New York for IGNITION 2015 this December 8–9, you'll need to find a place to stay — preferably a hotel that's well-equipped and comfortable, near the event, and not astronomically expensive.

Fortunately, we've reserved a block of rooms at the Hudson Hotel at a special group rate for conference attendees. Why stay at the Hudson? Stylish and cool, it has a number of bars and lounges, making it the perfect place to relax and network after IGNITION. As a bonus, it's only a five-minute walk from the Time Warner Center.

Here's a sneak peek at what you might expect if you book your room at the Hudson. Rooms start at $299 and are guaranteed to sell out, so book your stay now by calling (702) 577-2830 and asking for the Business Insider - IGNITION 2015 group rate. Or, book online with the group code IG0715.

The Hudson has a cool vibe, but it's also loaded with business perks.

Guests have access to free high-speed WiFi, a 24-hour fitness center, a spa, even foosball and billiards (for those who like some friendly competition when they network).

Each room is elegantly modern.

The rooms have paneled floors and walls, cotton linens, a flat-screen HDTV, iPod docks, designer toiletries, and scenic views of the city. 

Eat your pre- and post-IGNITION meals at Hudson Common, a modern-day beer hall and burger joint.

Enjoy 16 varieties of locally brewed beers and sample the restaurant's "uncommon" interpretations of burgers, sandwiches, and fries. Continental breakfast buffets are offered daily.

Some of the most fascinating natural landscapes around the world are actually the result of human activity.

Mining has led to the accidental creation of stunning geysers in destinations like Nevada and Madagascar and the building of dams has led to lakes in unexpected places like the Egyptian desert and in the remote corners of the United Arab Emirates.

From the Door to Hell, whose continuous burning is actually the result of Soviet geologists who accidentally drilled and tried to burn off fuels in the hole, to Providence Canyon, which was formed through poor farming practices in the 1800s, here are 9 natural landmarks that are actually man-made.

SEE ALSO: 20 gorgeous natural wonders around the world

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Nevada’s Fly Geyser, located in Washoe County, was created through accidental well drilling in 1916. In the 1960s, the water began escaping from the drilled location, creating the geyser which is known for its stunning changing colors.

Source: Daily Mail

The Door to Hell, located in Derweze, Turkmenistan in the Karakul Desert, is a giant hole of fire that was created when geologists drilled the site in 1971, accidentally tapping into a cavern teeming with natural gas. They burned off the hole, hoping that the fire would use all of the fuel that leaked and inevitably burn out, but it has continued burning to this day.

Source: Daily Mail

Lake Zahker, located in a remote corner of the United Arab Emirates near the border with Oman, was the result of waste water that was released onto the land before pushing up groundwater levels to eventually result in the creation of a lake.

Source: CNN

The life of a Buddhist monk is filled with study, meditation, and... Instagram?

That's the case for @gdax, or Gedun Wangchuk. He's a Buddhist monk living and Instagramming in Tibet, Huffington Post reports.

His account, first spotted by the blog Redbubble, depicts the beauty and peace of his daily life. Instagram itself appears to be the only outlet that's been able to get in contact with the hard-to-track-down Wangchuk. They interviewed him for their blog.

Wangchuk's account features shots of the Tibetan countryside, wildlife, his fellow monks, and places of worship. He even posts the occasional video.

Here are some of his most spectacular Instagrams. Sit back, relax, and enjoy one of the most charming accounts on Instagram.

SEE ALSO: Meet the Instagram celebrity who wrestles sharks with his bare hands

Wangchuk's Instagram documents both the religious and administrative responsibilities of a monk.

“Mankind shares and lives on planet Earth as one family with each continent having its own different nationalities, religions, faith, customs, unique culture and languages,” Wangchuk told the Instagram blog.

"But aside from such differences, we all have the same common desire for happiness," he continued. “That’s why Instagram, as a window to this global family, is a joy." 

The spiritual leader of Tibet is the Dalai Lama.

Instagram Embed:
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Source.

Sometimes, spending a little more is totally worth it.

But how do you know which indulgences are worth it? Or whether you're actually paying for quality, rather than just hype?

We combed through Reddit and Quora to find out which expensive purchases users had no regrets about making.

Mandi Woodruff contributed to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: 13 things you're better off buying used

A Tempurpedic mattress: "My girlfriend at the time had chronic back pain. Spent $3,000 on a mattress. I can never go back."

Source: Reddit user Pabca

LED lightbulbs: "The entry cost is high, but maintenance, efficiency, longevity, and useability make up for it."

Source: Quora user David Waedemon

Shoes: "Rule of thumb: don't skimp on anything that separates you from the ground."

Source: Reddit user gothicaasshole

There are some things you just shouldn't do on LinkedIn.

Kim Brown is an assistant director for Syracuse University's Career Services department. She spends a good portion of her day looking over LinkedIn profiles for job seekers and students.

She makes sure candidates are putting their best foot forward on LinkedIn.

Here are the most common mistakes Brown sees job seekers make on LinkedIn.

SEE ALSO: MILLION-DOLLAR URLS: The most expensive domain names of all time

Your profile is full of typos

Brown says she's spotted typos in company names, job titles, and even in the user's name.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn't have a built-in spell checker, but your browser might. Safari, Chrome, and Firefox underline misspellings in red. Bottom line, whatever you use: Be as careful on LinkedIn as you would be with a paper resume.

You have no picture in your profile

Adding a picture to your LinkedIn profile can make a world of difference to a recruiter. Studies have shown that LinkedIn profiles with pictures are much more likely to get clicked on than those without.

LinkedIn says you're 14 times more likely to be viewed if you have a photo.

You have a profile picture, but it's a photo of you and your significant other (or worse)

Do not get LinkedIn and Facebook confused, says Brown.

Facebook is for personal pictures, LinkedIn is for professional ones.

Brown recalls one student who came to her, frustrated because he couldn't find a job. When she checked out his LinkedIn, she saw that he had chosen a photo of himself doing The Chicken Dance at a wedding. Oof. 

Stereotypical, duck-faced selfies are another big no-no that Brown's started noticing more often. 

She also says she sees a lot of people link to their Facebook profiles from their LinkedIn pages. Don't do this. It's best to keep the two profiles separate.

These are not your average mom and pop stores.

In a report on family businesses this month, Credit Suisse introduced the CS Global Family 900 universe— a database of the 920 largest family-owned companies in the world. Companies on the list are publicly-traded with market capitalization's of at least $1 billion, as well as family-owned stakes of at least 20 percent.

The 920 companies are found in 35 countries, with more than 64 percent coming from Emerging Asia.

"In more developed markets, we see more fragmented ownership and many families selling out over time as a general theme," Credit Suisse analysts noted. "Frequently quoted statistics from the Family Business Institute show that only one third of family-owned businesses last into a second generation of ownership, 12% to a third and just 3% to a fourth."

But some of these companies have been controlled by families for generations, and no family business comes without family troubles. Many of these companies have experienced very public feuds between relatives. And with transgressions ranging from bribery to doing business with Hitler, some have done things that they probably wouldn't do again.

Here's the list of the top 21 family-owned businesses from the CS Global Family 900 universe. Spoiler Alert: Walmart is only number three.

21. Sun Pharmaceutical

Industry: Health Care

Country: India

Market Cap: $36 billion

Family: Shanghvi

Comment: According to Forbes, Dilip Shanghvi founded Sun Pharmaceutical in 1983 after borrowing the equivalent of $160 from his father. Today it is the biggest drug company in India, making Shanghvi — still the firm's largest shareholder — India's second richest man.

20. CK Hutchison Holdings

Industry: Financials

Country: Hong Kong

Market Cap: $36 billion

Family: Li

Comment: After a massive reorganization last month, Cheung Kong Holdings is now CK Hutchison Holdings, with Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, and his family at the helm. Li founded the company in the 1950s and today runs it with his son Victor. His other son Richard is also a billionaire.

19. Carnival Corporation

Industry: Consumer Discretionary

Country: United States

Market Cap: $37 billion

Family: Arison

Comment: Siblings Micky and Shari Arison both hold large stakes in Carnival, the cruise ship operator founded by their late father, Ted. Micky is Chairman and a former CEO of Carnival, and also owns the Miami Heat. Shari has her own investment firm in Israel and is one of the richest people in the Middle East.

Greece has between 1,200 and 6,000 islands, according to a range of different estimates, and there is no definitive answer on how many the Greek government owns.

What we do know is that dozens of islands are up for sale, and British property agent Knight Frank is predicting a "fire sale" of Greek privately owned islands over the next few years.

If the Greek government does become desperate, it can also hawk off some of its island assets to help raise the €50 billion (£36 billion, $55 billion) that is needed to appease its creditors.

On Private Islands Online, some islands are going for as little as €3 million (£2.1 million, $3.3 million). That's less than a house in an upmarket place in London like Chelsea. 

Check out some of these beautiful islands that a could be easily bought by wealthy investors from Private Islands Online.

11. Omfori Island — €50 million (£36 million, $55 million).

Location: Ionian Sea
Development: Partially Developed
Size: 1,112.00 acres / 4.5 million square metres

This partially developed island has only one building: the one you see in the picture. It does, however, have planning permission for someone to build on 20% of the island. Private Islands Online says in the prospectus that if the buyer can prove that it is a good investment to build more properties on the island, the Greek government is likely to grant further permission.

10. Dulichium Island — €40 million (£28.4 million, $44.1 million).

Location: Ionian Sea
Development: Nondeveloped
Size: 1,335.00 acres / 5.4 million square metres

This is the largest private island for sale in Greece right now. The highest point on the island is 250 metres above sea level. It has about 4,000 olive trees, shrubs, and dwarf bushes. It is undeveloped but presents an opportunity for someone to turn it in a luxury-hotel resort.

9. Northern Aegean Island — €35 million (£25.9 million, $38.6 million).

Location: Chora
Development: Nondeveloped
Size: 86.00 acres / 348,029 square metres

This island is only half an hour away, by speedboat, from Athens. Numerous international developers are already showing an interest, according to Private Islands Online, because of the island's close proximity to the Greek capital.

Every summer for the past eight years, huge algae blooms have taken over the beaches near Qingdao, a city in the Shandong province of China.

The bright green stuff has blanketed at least 13,500 square miles of ocean this summer, according to the South China Morning Post.

And this isn't the first time it's happened. In 2013, the blooms got as big as the state of Connecticut! Check out this year's algae infestation.

NOW READ: Surprising science-backed ways to boost your mood

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The algae blooms every year on the beaches in Qingdao, on China's northeast coast between Beijing and Shanghai. The first blooms appeared in 2007 after seaweed farmers working south of Qingdao switched up how they clean off their rafts.

Farmers use the rafts to make nori, a type of edible seaweed that's popular in Japan. When the rafts are cleaned off in the spring, along comes the algae, which thrives off the leftover seaweed nutrients and the warm conditions in the Yellow Sea.

Researchers think the reason for the algae growth in Qingdao is that seaweed farmers started cleaning their rafts farther offshore. This gave the algae the chance to spread out and make its way to the shore up near the city.

One of the strangest new children's toys on the market is Lammily, a "real life" doll for girls launched in 2014 by artist Nickolay Lamm.

Lammily has the proportions of an actual teenage girl — and therefore is shorter and stockier than Barbie, the impossibly thin top-selling doll from Mattel.

Lammily sales are doing well: "We've done $1.5 million in sales exclusively from online," Lamm told Business Insider this week. "We have yet to try out specialty or mass retail, so we're excited about that."

Several years ago, Lamm became obsessed with Barbie's distorted body. His obsession began in part because of his own attempt to obtain a "perfect" body as a teenager. "Back in high school, I starved myself and exercised to exhaustion to have a set of six-pack abs. After achieving my desired BMI, I looked and felt terrible,"he wrote recently on his blog. 

Two years ago, Lamm gave Business Insider a set of illustrations in which he tried to reshape Barbie using the proportions of an average American 19-year-old. "I feel that this is as close as you can get to a real-life representation of a Barbie-proportioned woman standing next to an average-size woman," he told us.

The average 19-year-old woman was modeled using these measurements, as described by the CDC:

• 64.29" height
• 33.62" waist
• 14.09" upper-arm length
• 14.45" upper-leg length
• 20" head circumference
• 15" neck circumference

Barbie, at one-sixth scale, would have the following measurements, Lamm believes:

• 69" height

• 36" bust

• 18" waist

• 33" hips
• 
22" head circumference
• 
9" neck circumference

The illustrations below show what a "Barbie" may look like if she were a normal American. (And you can see how they eventually led Lamm to create Lammily.)

As Lamm maps Barbie next to an average person, the differences become obvious quickly.

Barbie is huge! She is 5 inches taller than the average young woman.

Barbie isn't just a thin woman — her waist is almost half the size of an average woman's, just 18 inches.

David McKinney is an Australian app developer who turned a Ford Transit van into a mobile work station.

"It has all the usual office things like Wi-Fi, AC power, and a desk for working," McKinney detailed over at his blog."It also has a couch for thinking, a view, and fresh air. And it's always near the ocean or a place for exploring."

McKinney currently uses the workspace for developing the Product Hunt app for iPhones.

"I think most things around us can be designed to be better for people," he said. "Here's my take on the modern office — a better place to do good work."

Note: All photos used with permission.

SEE ALSO: Steve Jobs' 14 most inspiring quotes

McKinney started with a Ford Transit van.

The old wooden floorboard needed to be removed.

The replacement boarding arrives.

History, politics, and demographics have helped to shape the international borders that separate countries around the world. 

While some boundaries simply consist of markings on a road, in areas of political turmoil borders are marked by high fences and heavily guarded gates. 

From the USA-Canada border, which spans over 5,000 miles, to satellite images that capture the brightly lit border of India and Pakistan at night, here is a glimpse at some of the most striking international borders around the world.

SEE ALSO: 18 rare color photographs of the Russian Empire from over 100 years ago

This NASA satellite image depicts the border between Haiti, which is much more arid, on the left, and the Dominican Republic, which is greener, on the right.

This photo of the border between Israel and Egypt was taken by the International Space Station. The border is said to be one of the few that is so visible from space.

The Bering Strait separates the Seward Peninsula of Alaska to the east and Chukotskiy Poluostrov of Siberia to the west. The boundary between the US and Russia lies between the Big and Little Diomede Islands, visible in the middle of the photo here.

As technology becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, the people who make the software we use every day have become the next celebrities and rock stars.

The first generation of super-influential computer scientists largely came from the hallowed halls of academia, where the internet got its start. Today, there's a new wave of programmers forging the path ahead for the modern web.

These are the innovative programmers doing tons of work behind the scenes to make the internet safer, more useful, and a lot more fun. 

SEE ALSO: 21 photos of Microsoft's historic rise to rule the PC world

NYC-based MIT graduate Limor Fried — known online as "ladyada," as tribute to pioneering computer scientist Lady Ada Lovelace — develops software and hardware that gets used in electronics projects and products all over the world. In 2013, Fried told Newsweek that the company had done $22 million in revenue.

As the founder of Oculus VR, which Facebook bought for $2 billion, 22-year-old Palmer Luckey is in a good position: If virtual reality takes off like Facebook is betting that it will, it'll be largely because of Luckey's contributions with the Oculus Rift headset.

Developer Zoe Quinn started off making award-winning games like Depression Quest, but after enduring a targeted online harassment campaign over the last year, she and her partner Alex Lifschitz started Crash Override. It's an "anti-online hate mob task force" that builds software and tools to help stop online harassment.

NOW WATCH: This drummer created a whole song by only using the sound of coins

In the second game of the 2001 season, the New England Patriots lost starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe, and it appeared they were headed for another last-place finish in the AFC East.

Instead, led by sixth-round pick Tom Brady, the Patriots went on one of the most unprecedented runs in NFL history, beating the heavily favored St. Louis Rams to win the Super Bowl.

While many of these players and coaches remain involved with football, others have taken completely different paths. One is now the co-owner of a trampoline amusement center chain, another competed in last year's World Series of Poker event, and one has even become a minister.

Drew Bledsoe began the year as the team's starting quarterback.

He's now a renowned winemaker in Oregon, where he's also the offensive coordinator for his sons' high school team.

Source: Patriots.com

Tom Brady took over at quarterback after Bledsoe got injured.

The tech industry is legendarily built on the brilliance of college dropouts. Steve Jobs didn't finish. Neither did Bill Gates or Larry Ellison.

But just because they didn't all walk at graduation — or make it to their second semester — doesn't mean they weren't shaped by their years in the Ivory Tower. 

Gates became friends with Steve Ballmer at Harvard, Ellison learned he was a pretty good computer programmer at the University of Illinois, and Jobs considered his time at Reed College among the most valuable experiences of his life. 

Meanwhile, Peter Thiel — who actually did graduate from Stanford — now thinks college is such a waste of time that he offers $100,000 scholarships to students who want to bypass college and start innovating now. 

What can we say, everyone's experience is different.

This is an update of an article originally by Aaron Taube.

SEE ALSO: From selling bras to taming lions, here are the summer jobs 19 super successful people had before they were famous

Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page, University of Michigan

Page had been a quiet child growing up in East Lansing, Michigan, but he began to blossom among fellow engineers at University of Michigan during his tenure as an undergrad in the early '90s, according to a profile by Business Insider's Nicholas Carlson.

At Michigan, he hung out with other tech-obsessed students, and became editor of a newsletter put out by Eta Kappa Nu, an electrical and computer engineering honor society. Those articles, notes Carlson, reveal collegiate-Page to be "an opinionated, forward-looking thinker — and a goofball."

He was also a risk-taker. "He proposed a project, and I don't remember the details, but I specifically remember I said, 'Larry, I don't know if you can do that," his senior project advisor told Business Insider's Lisa Eadicicco. Page wasn't sure either — the project involved hacking the Palm Pilot to "do something it wasn't supposed to do"— but he was willing to try. 

(The risk paid off. Page got an A+.) 

Tesla cofounder Elon Musk, University of Pennsylvania

After two years at Queen's University in Canada, Musk studied physics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Musk's housemate and close friend at Penn, Adeo Ressi, recalled at a 2010 event held by TheFunded.com that Musk did not drink and was "the biggest dork I've ever met." 

Meanwhile, The New Yorker reports Musk loved first-person shooter video games (he briefly considered going into the video game business) and he was so focused on his schoolwork that his mother would check on him to make sure he was eating and changing his socks every day, according to a 2012 Forbes story.

But even then, Musk had an entrepreneurial spirit — Penn's alumni magazine reports that he and Ressi made money by charging other students to attend their house parties, an enterprise they took very seriously.

"It was a full-out, unlicensed speakeasy," Ressi told Musk's biographer, Ashlee Vance. "We would have as many as five hundred people. We would charge five dollars, and it would be pretty much all you could drink — beer and Jell-O shots and other things." 

Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, Stanford University

Mayer was already an overachiever by the time she enrolled at Stanford in 1993, having served as president of her high school's Spanish club, treasurer of its Key Club, and captain of both the debate team and pom-pom squad, reports Business Insider's Carlson.

Unsurprisingly, this intense focus on achievement continued in Palo Alto, where a former classmate describes her as having been "very smart and very serious."

But according to Carlson, Mayer wavered from her initial plan to become a doctor, finding that she preferred the problem-solving skills used in computer programming to the rote memorization needed to succeed in pre-med classes.

As an upperclassmen, Mayer excelled teaching younger students in her symbolic systems major, a course of study that combines linguistics, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and computer science classes.

Sneakers have a longer history than you might think.

Far from being a modern phenomenon, the first sneakers appeared in the mid-1800s as running shoes. Unlike the sneakers of today, they looked more like a dress shoe, but with spiked soles.

As sneakers have evolved, they've transitioned from a sportswear staple to a fashion statement. As such, The Brooklyn Museum is hosting a traveling exhibit, "The Rise of Sneaker Culture" (through Oct. 4), presented by the Bata Shoe Museum of Toronto.

Keep scrolling to see the exhibit's ranking of the 18 most influential sneakers.

SEE ALSO: These are the only shoes guys need for summer

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

18. Nike x Tom Sachs NikeCraft Lunar Underboot Aeroply Experimentation Research Boot Prototype, 2008–12

17. Nike Foamposite, 1997

16. Nike Air Jordan III, 1988

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Last year my son, James, and I drove up to Watkins Glen International, a storied racetrack, to watch a Ferrari race. We did not, however, make the drive in a Ferrari.

This year, Ferrari kindly lent us a California T, the company's "entry-level" car — its base price is $198,000 — to make a sort of return visit. Last time, we watched a Ferrari Challenge race in which the contestants run in Ferrari 458s. This time we attended the Six Hours of the Glen, an endurance race featuring teams from a variety of automakers — Porches, BMW, Aston Martin, Mazda, Corvette — alongside Ferrari.

It was an interesting weekend with a long drive in a cool car and a race that was heavily affected by the weather. Mixed in was a jaunt around the original Watkins Glen road course, where after World War II racers battled it out and before the now famous raceway was built.

We had a lot of fun — check it out.

Last year, James and I checked out a race series organized by Ferrari and featuring teams running only Ferrari 458 cars.

James had a blast ...

... because for an 8-year-old what's cooler than Ferraris?

It's kind of crazy that "Suicide Squad" is going to be the first DC comic book to get a movie after Warner Bros.' aggressive new slate of superhero movies kicks off with "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" in March of next year. Given that the studio has yet to truly find its footing with the cinematic versions of its heroes, jumping right into things with a team of villains that the general populace probably doesn't know anything about is an incredibly ballsy move. 

That also makes it the perfect move. 

While the trailer for "Suicide Squad" doesn't tell us much, it does know that the movie's basic hook is a great one, and leans into it hard: This is a team of some of the worst supervillains in a world where Superman exists, sent on missions where success is not likely. 

And if that doesn't intrigue you, hey, here's the Joker and also a shot with Batman on top of a Lamborghini. 

There's a reason the trailer ends with the Joker: He's easily the most recognizable villain of the bunch. Want to know who the rest are? 

Read on. 

SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about Ant-Man

VIola Davis will play Amanda Waller.

As the trailer says, Amanda "The Wall" Waller is the fierce will pulling the strings behind the Suicide Squad, because she really is that good at getting people to "act against their own self-interests."

Captain Boomerang will be played by Jai Courtney.

George "Digger" Harkness, aka Captain Boomerang, is an Australian master of boomerangs, which is kind of hard to take seriously. In the comics, he hasn't been the best team player in the Squad.

Jay Hernandez plays El Diablo.

 Though there are multiple versions of him in the comics, Hernandez is most likely playing Chato Santana an ex-criminal who becomes a member of the Squad in the New 52 series. He could have pyrokinetic abilities or be a host to a spirit of vengeance. Probably not the latter.

NOW WATCH: Here's the new 'Batman v Superman' trailer that just got a standing ovation at Comic-Con

When seeking out your first round of venture funding, preparation is key.

And what better way to prepare than by hitting the books?

We've asked around the Business Insider newsroom and scoured the Web, collecting 11 books that will help startup founders hone their pitch, build their confidence, and better their salesmanship — all while giving them the tools to take a fresh look at their startup.

SEE ALSO: This app developer turned a Ford van into a fantastic mobile office space

"The Art of the Pitch," by Peter Coughter

Coughter's book takes a close look at the role of persuasion in the creation of a good pitch, revealing a set of tools to approach a pitch or presentation in a way that's natural to you.

Read more about Peter Coughter's The Art of the Pitch

"The Lean Startup," by Eric Ries

Ries' book teaches startups how to succeed in uncertain times, demonstrating how modern innovators must adapt quickly, test their ideas constantly, and focus on the basics.

 Read more about Eric Ries' The Lean Startup

"Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get From Start-up to IPO on Your Terms," by Jeffrey Bussgang

With experience on both sides of the table, Jeffrey Bussgang hones in on one of the most important aspects of pitching a VC — who will not only be the best backer, but best partner?

Read more about Jeffrey Bussgang's Mastering the VC Game

A puff of this, and the world transforms into a colorful kaleidoscope of dancing patterns and waves of sound; a sip of that, and the muscles in your body relax like jello.

We know different drugs make us experience the world around us in very different ways — and their after-effects are often nowhere near as pleasant as the immediate results they produce.

So what exactly are these drugs doing to the brain to prompt these feelings?

UP NEXT: 17 'healthy habits' you're better off giving up

SEE ALSO: Surprising science-backed ways to boost your mood

Marijuana

When marijuana's active ingredient, THC, hits the brain, it causes brain cells to release the feel-good chemical dopamine. Dopamine is a part of the brain's reward system — it's the same chemical that makes us feel good when we do enjoyable things such as eating and having sex.

When overexcited by drugs, the reward system creates feelings of euphoria. This is also why, in some rare cases, excessive use can be a problem: The more often you trigger that euphoria, the less you may feel for other rewarding experiences.

Magic Mushrooms

A recent study showed that shrooms' main psychoactive ingredient, psilocybin, appears to quiet traditional brain activity and instead jump-starts new connections between different areas of the brain.

These new connections may be what causes users to describe "seeing sounds" or "hearing colors" and could also give shrooms some of their antidepressant qualities. More research is needed, of course. And shrooms don't come without health risks, which can include unpleasant hallucinations and increased anxiety.

Alcohol

Like other drugs, booze affects brain chemistry by altering the levels of neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that pass along the signals that control our thinking and behavior.

Alcohol slows down our thinking, breathing, and heart rate by halting our "excitatory" messengers, the ones that typically increase our energy levels. But it amplifies our "inhibitory" messengers, those that usually work to calm things down. It also boosts our brain's feel-good dopamine levels.