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I used to drink quite a bit in high school, university and my early twenties. At some point I decided that I wanted to start programming and build a side projec

I used to drink quite a bit in high school, university and my early twenties. At some point I decided that I wanted to start programming and build a side project but found that having one or many drinks would write off the evening or next day that I had planned to learn and develop myself. So I stopped drinking alcohol and over time just began to prefer the clearer state of mind. Eventually, it just seemed like alcohol was unnecessary money and calories, and would end up tainting any free time I had ahead of me. So I preferred not to drink. Not that I have anything against drinking alcohol in moderation but I really think there is a good opportunity to do interesting non-alcoholic drinks that you could have on a night out.

Frost1x 7y ago
I think many miss the point of drinking alcohol. While I perfectly respect those who avoid it, the primary benefit of alcohol is to provide the proverbial "social lubrication." It "loosens" people up and tends to make people more friendly and open to socialize with (approachable), even some of the most defensive people I've met. Many in society today are fairly antisocial or fall into small groups at social events that can be more difficult to start a discussion and mingle with. They're frequently more judgemental at that point and may avoid people based on ill conceived prejudices, limiting otherwise worthwhile relationships they may form. Alcohol helps break that barrier and lets people talk who would otherwise rarely, if ever, talk. Sometimes this is fruitful, sometimes it's not. It gives people a social "out" when it's not fruitful or their social groups judge/criticize them for talking to someone different/odd, "well I was tipsy." If viewed as an optimization problem, alcohol effectively provides a stochastic gradient descent, mutation, momentum/inertia, annealing, or whichever minima escape mechanism you prefer to explore social spaces beyond what you've already found.
- slenk 7y ago
  Smokers will say that cigarettes help them loosen up and meet people too. They both cause cancer. I think you are glorifying poison a little much

Frost1x 7y ago

I think many miss the point of drinking alcohol. While I perfectly respect those who avoid it, the primary benefit of alcohol is to provide the proverbial "social lubrication." It "loosens" people up and tends to make people more friendly and open to socialize with (approachable), even some of the most defensive people I've met. Many in society today are fairly antisocial or fall into small groups at social events that can be more difficult to start a discussion and mingle with. They're frequently more judgemental at that point and may avoid people based on ill conceived prejudices, limiting otherwise worthwhile relationships they may form. Alcohol helps break that barrier and lets people talk who would otherwise rarely, if ever, talk. Sometimes this is fruitful, sometimes it's not. It gives people a social "out" when it's not fruitful or their social groups judge/criticize them for talking to someone different/odd, "well I was tipsy." If viewed as an optimization problem, alcohol effectively provides a stochastic gradient descent, mutation, momentum/inertia, annealing, or whichever minima escape mechanism you prefer to explore social spaces beyond what you've already found.

slenk 7y ago
Smokers will say that cigarettes help them loosen up and meet people too. They both cause cancer. I think you are glorifying poison a little much