Drop me an email, you can find it in my profile.
I will do that. Forgive me, I'm new to HN. When I click on your handle, I don't see an email. Do I find it somewhere else?
edit: found email info
Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
101–110 of 642 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#102I would be careful of overestimating the amount of stimulant use based on comments and emails here. People who use a lot of stimulants tend to love talking about themselves and often have a belief that anyone successful must be taking stimulants secretly. It plays into the motivation of most stimulant users which is that the stimulants have given them a special cheat code in life. I worked in construction in my young…
>People who use a lot of stimulants tend to love talking about themselves
As opposed to people who don't?
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#103TL;DR: I've had issues with alcohol in the past, and am currently on prescription drugs to focus at work.
I've bounced around a bit.
After losing my job in '00 I started drinking pretty heavily. That was probably my worst period, and definitely in the abuse zone. I was able to pull myself out of it long enough to get work, which helped me keep out of trouble with it for a while.
In '06 I was working in the banking sector in NYC. There was a pretty string drinking culture there. Never at work, but afterwards you'd head out to bars and have a half dozen beers, then maybe go to a whiskey bar. I'd stumble home at least one night per week.
I had to do a lot of introspection about this and decide whether I wanted alcohol in my life at all. In the end I feel like my drinking was trying to avoid a shitty point in my life. If I hit a point like that again I stop drinking altogether (this has happened once since then, and it went well). But otherwise I don't really worry about it. I probably drink about twice/month, and usually only a drink or two when we go out for a nice dinner.
These days I've been having focus issues. I've always been borderline ADD. After my son was diagnosed with ADHD he started on Methylphenidate (in the Ritalin family) and I saw a night and day difference. So I saw a psychopharmacologist and I'm taking 60 mg Vyvanse (in the Adderall family) most work days. I don't use it when I'm not working, and I never stack more than one. But there has been a lot of pressure to keep up with peers. I'm 38 years old and have two kids, working as a software engineer at Google, my team lead is 22, and the average age of the group is 23. I just can't match their work-life balance. The Vyvanse keeps me focused on my job, and my peers and manager have noticed and commented on the increased productivity.
I've gone through periods when I smoked pot heavily to unwind from stressful work. These days I smoke extremely rarely.
After dabbling in the alcohol addiction, I don't want to fall back in that, so I keep a pretty close eye on myself. My wife also feels comfortable telling me if she thinks there's a problem, so I feel supported by the people around me.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#104I have found that the high tolerance for recreational activities throughout the workday has made software development easy to cope with. Stuck on algorithm? Go play some ping pong. Stressing about a bug? Pick up Dr. Mario or maybe some Ms. PacMan. However, since my brain is expected to be on full speed all the time, I do find myself drinking a lot of espresso. Around 8 shots per day. In this profession, we work weeks and often weekends to meet deadlines. I cannot imagine that software developers who abuse drugs could live through a typical software project. And I can't recall any professional developers who use drugs. Although I did know a graphic designer who I'm pretty sure did crack. Not 100% sure though.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#105I am open to discussing this in raw detail - contact in my profile. Most programmers, scientists, people in finance and startups I know take a lot of stimulants. I take a lot of stimulants. [Edit - as others have pointed out, there's a strong selection bias going on here. I actively seek out people who I know take stimulants, and we naturally congregate socially based on a bunch of subtle and explicit cues that signa…
This is, subjectively, absolutely insane to me. In your experience do people have an easy time going off these substances?
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#106Hardly a drug, but I take a "cosmonaut pills", Phenylpiracetam, for years. No side effects for me (tho it varies from person to person as I saw), but compared to Adderal (which I'd gladly take but it is too much pain to obtain here) it is like kiddie vitamins.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would apply a grain of salt to the claims of people who are avid drug users, as to the popularity of drugs. There is an incredibly strong “birds of a feather flock together,” effect at play. The social circles of people who think they need drugs to do their job are going to only minimally overlap with people who find that notion crazy and dangerous.
So it's two separate cultures at work in the same industry--people who pretty much have no experience or want of drugs and a culture of using drugs, trying lots of things to get a productivity and efficiency boost?
It’s not just in the industry, it’s probably from high school or uni, but yeah you have the idea.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Peter said he thought he needed modafinil. Why is it a hot topic now? His thought way back was that it was everything he needed at the time--mood regular, stimulant.
It said to have characteristics of a holy grail stimulant: increased performance without the crash or heavy tolerance build.
it's heavily dependent on the right genetic makeup from what i know.
for some it provides clarity, for others, fog. the dopamine transporters are very mysterious to me.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#109I would be careful of overestimating the amount of stimulant use based on comments and emails here. People who use a lot of stimulants tend to love talking about themselves and often have a belief that anyone successful must be taking stimulants secretly. It plays into the motivation of most stimulant users which is that the stimulants have given them a special cheat code in life. I worked in construction in my young…
> People who use a lot of stimulants tend to love talking about themselves As opposed to people who don't?
I generally love talking about myself, but I don't love talking about how I had a glass of cab last night, and how I can't wait to get home and have another.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#110Wow, this discussion is mindblowing. Working in software dev for 20 years, in Germany, and I have never seen any developer taking any stimulants. But maybe this is because only my first job was at a young startup, and I quickly learned that working 24/7 just isn't for me and I need a more stable environment. Today, the way whalesalad and others describe the effect of Adderall sounds interesting to me, but I would nev…
I can add one anecdatum, I'm from the Netherlands and don't know of drug abuse in the two businesses I interned at. I do know that some friends of mine, who are devs/engineers, occasionally use various drugs recreationally, but never for work.
The only drug use I know of is ritalin or other legal stimulants for those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, and of course coffee/tea/alcohol.