Ask HN: How much coffee do you drink?

2 cups per day. I find it sharpens my attention and problem solving, both in traffic (on a motorbike) and when programming. The longer I can spend away from it, the more effective it is when I take it up again.

Not essential part of work life.

Don't wish I drank it less.

Might consider alternatives, but I would need to be convinced that other stimulants would be sufficiently advantageous vs deleterious.

Absolutely none at all.

I drink water, from a tap only, and nothing else at all.

I got rid of coffee and tea from my diet about 4 years ago. It was one of the best health improvements I have ever made. Instantly solved weight gain, insomnia, irritability, migranes, sickness, concentration problems and bowel problems. Felt like utter crap for about 2 months but it wore off eventually.

I could draw a direct comparison to when I broke my leg and was on large quantities of opiates. The withdrawal from this was horrible. The same with caffeine.

It's not good for you if it does this.

Now trying to get rid of sugar, which is MUCH harder.

1 cup a day though a second cup sometimes makes an appearance.

I rid of my coffee maker and replaced it with a simple chemex pourover -- resulting in stronger & better coffee. It's tedious and has essentially forced me to go from drinking 12 cups a day to 1.

I enjoy coffee, though.. I should schedule my drinks better -- I either have it early in the morning or late at night.

It's 1am and I'm drinking today's cup. That tends to result in an awful lot of reddit or hours & hours of CSS & A/B adjusting/testing.

As for your questions: I don't believe it helps me 'work harder', it's merely something I enjoy. It doesn't help me wake up (though it does seem to help with some [somewhat] ADHD-like issues that I have): I merely enjoy it. It's unessential. As for other stimulants -- at one point I had a calcium deposit in my shoulder a year ago & was on percocets as a result -- during the few days I was on that (Yay, amphetamines!) I completed more work than I had in an entire year prior.

Now that, if legal, I'd take in a heartbeat. I was able to suddenly concentrate again and think fluidly: I wrote endlessly for days and felt as though I was completely myself again (minus some grogginess from the meds). Alas, perhaps I should get checked for adult ADHD.

In the meantime back to meandering around the web..

C'mon, we're all friends here. :)

I'm consistently somewhere between one and two Starbucks ventis per day; however, when I was in grad school (one-year lock-step masters program), my coffee consumption was significantly higher. You could find me with coffee about 90% of my waking hours. I consumed it until I was so tired it simply no longer had its stimulating effect on me...crash...start the cycle over again. I do not miss grad school.