There’s a lot of anecdotes floating around regarding the rampant abuse of stimulants, amphetamines, and other substances especially in startups and tech companies. I never see it discussed openly but it’s becoming a bit of an open secret and I fear it could grow out of hand. I know there are no studies or any other kind of data, but I’d like to hear some personal experiences and stories if you have any.
Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#2It's a statistically confirmed reality of substance abuse in our industry.
I posit 2 factors.
1. You can readily do it while doing your job. If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles. Your hands are too busy; but with IT? 1 hand on mouse, other hand on beer bottle. Sure construction workers aren't sober angels, but they aren't as inebriated as IT.
2. The inherent negativity of the industry. Many jobs are about 'fixing something broken' and tickets and new 0day and we have to patch. Generally speaking the industry is something negative. When dealing with negativity dayin-dayout it takes a psychological toll which nobody addresses appropriately.
When these 2 factors collide, they feed into each other.
edit/ Sorry, didn't figure my posits would be so controversial. downvoted quite heavily.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#3It's a statistically confirmed reality of substance abuse in our industry. I posit 2 factors. 1. You can readily do it while doing your job. If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles. Your hands are too busy; but with IT? 1 hand on mouse, other hand on beer bottle. Sure construction workers aren't sober angels, but they aren't as inebriated as IT. 2. The inherent negativ…
I think you may have fallen into the classic white-collar trap of thinking too little of your blue-collared working peers; they're perfectly capable of getting fucked up on the job. The difference tends to be that their mistakes can have direct human morbidity and mortality associated with them, and are often followed by a drug test.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#4It's a statistically confirmed reality of substance abuse in our industry. I posit 2 factors. 1. You can readily do it while doing your job. If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles. Your hands are too busy; but with IT? 1 hand on mouse, other hand on beer bottle. Sure construction workers aren't sober angels, but they aren't as inebriated as IT. 2. The inherent negativ…
Seconded. No matter how good you feel you are in this field, chances are great that 90% of your work is based on negative input. Relatively few developers get to work on green-field projects with any frequency, and even those can (and will) quickly become slog-fests of bug patching. The more management overhead there is in the company, the faster this happens (IME).
If you can remap this in your mind to be expressed as improving negative experiences, then maybe it will seem better emotionally :)
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#5My personal experience. I've been in the industry for over twenty years and never worked in a place where drug use was normalized. Most of the workplaces had a drinking culture to some degree: beers in the office fridge, regular happy hours, corporate events where you got hammered with your coworkers. Over time, marijuana use has become more normalized, a condition that I believe more reflects society than tech.
One of my old coworkers was on meth for a while. She didn't really talk about it, though.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#6It's so easy to start drinking everyday.
You have these magical all-night coding sessions with just beer and music and you are getting so much work done.
Then you wake up later and later, eventually waking up so late and only needing to wait a couple of hours before you can start drinking again.
I was in a rut for a while, started staying up really late with absolutely incredible productivity and a feeling of not needed sleep. Flexible startup working hours was the ultimate enabler.
Then I got a headache that wouldn't go away, looked in the mirror and had huge lines under eyes, and I realized it's extremely bad for health and physical appearance.
I think people most susceptible to this are those who can't get easily out of bed in the morning, or take a while to get going with their day.
Nothing is worth irreversibly prematurely aging yourself for...people don't know though. It's a badge of honor but you pay the price.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#7Not sure about abuse but I imagine many coders take nootropics to give them an unfair advantage over their peers. I don't take research chemicals or anything like that, I prefer all natural things like the Alpha Brain supplement. I've also found nicotine & caffeine helps with focus. Beer helps, but only at the sweet spot of 4 cans of %5 alcohol volume. Any more and productivity drops dramatically.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#8It's a statistically confirmed reality of substance abuse in our industry. I posit 2 factors. 1. You can readily do it while doing your job. If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles. Your hands are too busy; but with IT? 1 hand on mouse, other hand on beer bottle. Sure construction workers aren't sober angels, but they aren't as inebriated as IT. 2. The inherent negativ…
>> If you're in a factory with both hands building the widget or on a roof nailing shingles
There is a long history of construction workers on amphetamine, opioids or cocaine.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31685308/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32677121/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700122/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35143279/
A job in construction is very challenging, both physically and mentally. Many in the construction industry resort to drugs and alcohol to cope with stress or to self-medicate physical pain. Some of the reasons that construction workers turn to substances include:
* Long work days
* Physical pain and injury
* Stress (pressure to work quickly)
* High risk of work-related disability
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/workforce/b...
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#9Not sure about abuse but I imagine many coders take nootropics to give them an unfair advantage over their peers. I don't take research chemicals or anything like that, I prefer all natural things like the Alpha Brain supplement. I've also found nicotine & caffeine helps with focus. Beer helps, but only at the sweet spot of 4 cans of %5 alcohol volume. Any more and productivity drops dramatically.
> Beer helps, but only at the sweet spot of 4 cans of %5 alcohol volume. Any more and productivity drops dramatically.
Looks like you found the Ballmer peak.
Re: Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?
#10Not sure about abuse but I imagine many coders take nootropics to give them an unfair advantage over their peers. I don't take research chemicals or anything like that, I prefer all natural things like the Alpha Brain supplement. I've also found nicotine & caffeine helps with focus. Beer helps, but only at the sweet spot of 4 cans of %5 alcohol volume. Any more and productivity drops dramatically.
> Beer helps, but only at the sweet spot of 4 cans of %5 alcohol volume. Any more and productivity drops dramatically. Looks like you found the Ballmer peak . https://xkcd.com/323/
Ha ha, that's a gem!