Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–106 of 106 posts

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

#101

Post by rjprins »

tome wrote: post #23
rjprins wrote: post #21

I use weed rarely nowadays, but have consumed my fair share. The effects differ a little bit per person, but in general: Weed makes you think you're sharp and insightful, but it actually makes you really stupid and slow. You forget things constantly. Using before work is only interesting if your job is mind-numbingly dull. Some more facts: 1. A single joint has about the effect of 4 glasses of alcohol, or 2-3 cups of…

Great facts, but do you have references?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7O4Sa8sGXk This video refers to "experts", but I am pretty sure you can find more of the same via Google.

And apparantly the propaganda was in the 20s-30s.

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

#102

Post by woadwarrior01 »

lordycon wrote: post #73
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with him 100%. This is a bit of a disappointment. Hacker News is very slowly going the way of reddit. Very slowly. I hope we can eventually keep this in check.

I don't. Hackers have long had a hippy element to their culture and plenty of people on here clearly find it of benefit. It's a valid topic to discuss. Who made this Jeff person the thought police anyway? Does he have a rival site or something...?

I've been suspecting that his recent blog post "The value of downvoting" to be an insidious attempt at getting more PR for his site, stackoverflow by dissing HN.

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

#103

Post by Lurkio »

lordycon wrote: post #41
CaptainMorgan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, while you're probably correct in programming design, I'm a national master in chess(which requires reasoning and logic), and I know about a handful of chess masters(FM/IM/GM's) that actually smoke dope. Allegedly, it helps to mentally slow the game down and reason each move out into their potential move branches. In the time allowed, they're able to visualize moves several iterations on down and concentra…

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

Just ordered it....Not my field, but I'm told users in Canada regard this book as the dog's? Anyone else dabbling with the subject matter?

Also, to those here who beleive that it can't possibly help with creativity, try it, you will not be disappointed. I find it hard NOT to be creative on it, it's just that kind of drug. If you have too much or use it badly then obviously it's not going to help, but as long as you use it responsibly, it's a great drug for helping you get back on track on those days when thinking about coding is the last thing you want to do. It gives impetus, creativity, stamina, and in some cases, very strong objectivity about your output too.

Lurkio

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

#104

Post by mannicken »

gamache wrote: post #83
mannicken wrote: post #62

* WARNING: Heavy drug material and offtopic both in one message. Don't complain if your Internet etiquette sensors blow up. * I've never smoked marijuana but I did take DXM (~1.5-2.0mg/lb) several times. Certainly, during DXM trip I would have absolutely no concentration or creativity. However, after it I found that the after-effect effectively destroys two of the great challenges to thinking: - Fear - Close-mindness…

Holy mother! Dextromethorphan and pot do not even compare, in terms of effects. That said, I am glad you found it to be of use. My several experiences with DXM did not have such positive effects, so I have learned something here. It's also worth noting that DXM is a dissociative drug, and like all dissociatives (ketamine, PCP, etc.) it causes measurable brain damage each and every time you do it. This effect is compo…

There is no way you can take it as often as pot. It's not a daily drug, of course. For me, I use it about several times a year. A couple of months is usually enough for clutter and stress to gather down so I can clear it all up with a disassociative.

Also, on permanent brain damage, see DXM FAQ (http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/faq/dxm_side_effects.sht...).

So far (about a year of usage) I find that the positive outweighs the negative.

PS. I'm also learning how to "astral project" (I put this in quotes because I just think it's a natural disassociative, not a spiritual experience). So far, I found AP to be much more powerful (albeit much shorter too) than the second plateau of DXM and I intend to stop drinking disguisting syrup completely as soon as I gain enough practice with AP.

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

#105

Post by mannicken »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #84
cosmo7 wrote: post #51

You have a choice in life: You can smoke dope, get stoned, start dozens of unfinished projects in Ruby or Scala or Haskell or whatever you've just read about, wear bad clothes and think you're doing something worthwhile just because you're up to date with xkcd and know how to jailbreak your iPhone. Or you can learn a real language - one with braces, as God intended - preferably C# but Java is acceptable, build a busi…

Ew, cocaine.

Yeah, real .NET programmers use heroin. Everyone knows that
Post reply on HN