This is tangentially related but I attend a leading CS university which sends a lot of students into highly sought after tech, consulting, and investment banking jobs. Students here do every drug under the rainbow and they do them a lot. When I talk to students at other schools the problem doesn't seem to be anywhere near as widespread.
Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
91–100 of 642 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#92I work for a well known software company now and of the 20 or so developers I work with closely I can confidently say that 50% of them don't even drink alcohol (mostly cultural) and the other 45% stick to craft beers and 5% might smoke some pot here and there but nobody really lets on.
I don't have any data but in my experience the most drug use and abuse has been in the sales org. My hunch it is a mix of personality type, environment and the way they are compensated (always a reason to party big) thing but they are best described as frat houses and make the tech side look like monasteries. And this isn't just small tech companies. Oracle, Salesforce, AWS etc.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#93Programmer in NYC working at various companies for almost 10 years. Never seen any drug use, or even heard of any. People drink a lot of coffee and tea, but that's it.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#94I'm a New York-based finance professional (former investment banker turned private equity investor) with a background using a wide variety of drugs, but mostly heroin. Besides heavy drinking and rare cocaine use among younger peers (analysts), I didn't see a lot of substance abuse. I often felt quite alone, especially in using my drugs of choice. I started using heroin right after I graduated high school, and used it…
wow, what an intense journey.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#95This is tangentially related but I attend a leading CS university which sends a lot of students into highly sought after tech, consulting, and investment banking jobs. Students here do every drug under the rainbow and they do them a lot. When I talk to students at other schools the problem doesn't seem to be anywhere near as widespread.
Does that make you think it's a problem in computer software more than other professions?
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#96I 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…
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll contact you directly, and appreciate your candor. Do you think it's a European vs. American thing? That we tend to demonize in some ways the need for substances to help us in some way, whereas in Berlin, for example, no one cares? And they've schooled themselves so that they know how to use it 'safely'--whatever that means? surely taking this stuff in the long term has some effect on the body (not sure if the ef…
My understanding from my American friends and partner is that it's exactly the same in the USA. Students, software developers, people in finance - for all of them stimulants are normal. I think most people aren't really concerned about being safe - the assumption is that because everyone else is doing it and nobody is getting hurt, it's safe. Which is mostly true (the jury is still out on the long term effects, but f…
seems to be what I'm finding too, thank you.
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#98I work for a well known software company now and of the 20 or so developers I work with closely I can confidently say that 50% of them don't even drink alcohol (mostly cultural) and the other 45% stick to craft beers and 5% might smoke some pot here and there but nobody really lets on. I don't have any data but in my experience the most drug use and abuse has been in the sales org. My hunch it is a mix of personality…
I assume you've see this sort of thing among those in sales are your company, yes? Is it coke or all kinds of things? And any idea why? Is sales particularly stressful or somehow more intense than the tech side of things?
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#99Wow, 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 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?
Re: Ask HN: I'm writing a book about white-collar drug use, including tech sector
#100I 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…
chiming in here to corroborate that stimulant use/abuse is heavily prevalent in scientists and startup types that i know.
even the md/phd types who have been in clinical practice for 20 years do it, even after they've had kids etc. most only abuse coffee-- you can tell because the norm is to drink coffee until you're literally red in the face when there is serious work to get done. there are people who abstain, of course. they aren't looked down on, but they're probably not as productive on average.
coffee isn't bad at all. but plenty of others use/abuse prescription stimulants too, usually a bit more clandestinely in my experience. but if you know what to look for it's easy to tell when they're on them.
it makes sense. the point where people need stimulants the most is in synthesizing experimental insights into new hypotheses in light of other literature. it takes a lot of brainpower to keep trucking... you can take a crack at it without stimulants, but you'll run out of steam quickly.
as far as the downside, a handful of people binge drink to come down, but it isn't the norm, except during social events. there are a few who smoke weed / take xanax at work to calm down, but these are frowned upon somewhat.