Ask HN: Do you smoke cannabis while programming?

10 pointstabob5y ago13 comments

13 comments

Yes. It’s replaced coffee and cigarettes for me. It instantly quiets all negative emotions I’m feeling (mostly boredom and frustration) so I can focus on the code. I’m lucky to live in a legal state.

tabobOP5y ago

I've found myself in a situation now where I am almost unable to code without being stoned. When I began smoking, I got over more than a decade's of insecurity over being a sysdadmin who couldn't "really code". Now it's sort of intertwined. Without being stoned, I just stare at my screen then switch to a news site after a few minutes, then repeat.

sangli5y ago

Were you able to stop smoking cigarettes?

dzhiurgis5y ago

Only when I already know pretty well what to do - write something simple but lots of it. Not when I actually need to reason about something - because your memory is low it’s pretty hard to do.

logicslave5y ago

Seems like a good way to open myself up to the nightmarish thought avenues of the inherent existential dread involved in debugging endlessly complex garbage code bases.

milkytron5y ago

For work, no. For educational or personal purposes, yes, sometimes.

nikivi5y ago

4-aco-dmt is nicer for that kind of thing

tabobOP5y ago

You joke, but I actually prototyped a bgp-friendly api & bgp-driven authoritative DNS service for edge-computing over a weekend while on a cocktail of Mushrooms, MDMA and an incredible amount of bubble-hash. Ultimately I formed a small company around it and sold it 6 months later to a hosting company for $75k. I was stoned for 90% of the development work, and was also coming down off of an MDMA trip when I pitched the idea. I literally walked into a hosting company owned by a friend at random (after not seeing him for 3 years) and told him I'd built this thing and that he needed it for their cloud offering.

sloaken5y ago

I did once. Not a good result.

speedgoose5y ago

Of course, I also drink a lot of alcohol before deploying to production and get a lot of sugar when code reviewing.

tabobOP5y ago

Do you calculate your Ballmer Peak?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ballmer%20Pe...

speedgoose5y ago

It's about 0% for me.

cybercraft15y ago

No, we don't. In CyberCraft (software development company from Ukraine) we have found out more efficient ways to stay relaxed. We practice different kinds of sport together, try yoga and meditations. Such an approach helps to get rid of anxiety, stay motivated and control the mind.

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13 comments

pakdhbfucttw5y ago

tabobOP5y ago

sangli5y ago

Were you able to stop smoking cigarettes?

dzhiurgis5y ago

Only when I already know pretty well what to do - write something simple but lots of it. Not when I actually need to reason about something - because your memory is low it’s pretty hard to do.

logicslave5y ago

Seems like a good way to open myself up to the nightmarish thought avenues of the inherent existential dread involved in debugging endlessly complex garbage code bases.

milkytron5y ago

For work, no. For educational or personal purposes, yes, sometimes.

nikivi5y ago

4-aco-dmt is nicer for that kind of thing

tabobOP5y ago

sloaken5y ago

I did once. Not a good result.

speedgoose5y ago

Of course, I also drink a lot of alcohol before deploying to production and get a lot of sugar when code reviewing.

tabobOP5y ago

Do you calculate your Ballmer Peak?

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ballmer%20Pe...

speedgoose5y ago

It's about 0% for me.

cybercraft15y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse