Ask HN: How many of you (coders) use marijuana?

Sounds like they could be using it to meditate.

Cannabis has been used for thousands of years as an aid to meditation in various Eastern cultures, e.g The Saddhu tradition in India.

Meditation has not only made me a better coder, but has really helped with my anxiety and depression.

I found this book most interesting:-

http://headstuffbooks.com/titles/cannabis_and_meditation

You can consume alcohol nearly every day and still drink in moderation.

Vaporizers are the premium delivery device for marijuana. Virtually all the harmful components of smoke are simply not produced, and virtually all the desirable components of the herb are released. I never owned one, but my time near a Volcano ($500, Teutonic engineering at its finest) was well spent.

Or so I heard. Drug use is illegal and immoral. Or so I heard.

(In reality, I have not smoked for some time; it started to give me problems with muscle tension, so I laid off. Hooray for a total lack of physical addictiveness!)

Yes, you can smoke everyday moderately. About a bowl will do it.

Blunts, bongs are overdoing it.

I have used chronic for several years and as a developer I find that it provides three important benefits, and I believe that for many developers it could provide the same but with important caveats and considerations.

1. It helps me get a peaceful full nights sleep, which for me is approximately 7 hours, with and clearheaded thoughts the next day

2. As an aid to creativity, but about only 10% or less of the time while working. My mind is getting stronger and so I can now be directly productive while high, however I tend instead to take notes and later revisit those notes while not high for speedier production

3. As an aid to learning, but perhaps only 10% or less of the time while studying. Rather I regularly review difficult material lightly while high in order to experience the benefits of heightened abstract thought

Very important notes:

-- There is a long process to the mind learning about and how to benefit from something as intoxicating as chronic. You won't know many things about it and yourself until you've had a lot of experience

-- Chronic is a strong sedative, many people fall asleep easily when they are first getting experience with it

-- It is very important to only smoke the female plant. The male plant has a lot of negative effects and can cause you to be groggy similar to over-drinking, and the positive effects are in my opinion not enough to warrant the negative effects

-- It's very important to take notes of creative ideas, since your memory for specifics is likely to be fuzzy

-- When approaching new concepts and abstracts

-- If you care about your productivity and learning, wait until you've gained lots of experience before trying to accomplish or study when you're high, otherwise a lot valuable time can be wasted. With a bit of experience it because possible to learn which creative and learning experiences can be directly improved from smoking

-- Use a vaporizer. It is not 100% safe as others have claimed, but it significantly reduces risks, as well as reduces all forms of odor, red eyes, etc, and the dosage can be controlled better

My programming capability has become so significantly better from smoking, but legal and medical dangers shouldn't be taken lightly. People who already know they are susceptible to self-destructive behavior need to realize that this is a drug that can sedate you heavily and it's important to learn when you can and cannot take it due to pressing work.

But as a way to improve your programming skills and learn abstract concepts (functional programming, linear algebra, and so on) and connecting the dots between fields of study its a godsend.

Plus, you'll just be happier :-)