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A doctor from a local dispensary (recreational cannabis isn't legal where I live, but medicinal is comically easy to obtain) once told me: “What do you do? Ah,
by firstbabylonian 3y ago
A doctor from a local dispensary (recreational cannabis isn't legal where I live, but medicinal is comically easy to obtain) once told me:
“What do you do? Ah, a software engineer. I guarantee you most people in your industry are on it all the time.”
He paints a picture where every highly functional modern worker these days is on a steady diet of CBD and THC products, perfectly calibrated to fit their lifestyle and the demands of their profession.
Thinking about it, this might explain some of the odder Zoom/Slack interactions you may have with colleagues at work.
- afpx 3y agoI've had a couple of co-workers who admitted to me they were always high. And, the CEO was even sometimes high. A lot of drug users just want to work harder and longer.
- TedDoesntTalk 3y agoSeems he has a conflict of interest if he earns money by prescribing it.
- jrflowers 3y agoOr he just got into the business after seeing that everybody was smoking weed anyway.
- mozman 3y agoA lot of people smoke weed, almost everyone I know has at least tried it. What I find is many engineers abuse Adderall and similar medications. People at work openly talk about their strategy to get a larger dosage from their doctor. I am not anti drugs but I can't help but see this as a race to the bottom.
- Fauntleroy 3y agoWhat kind of workplace are you at? Do you truly believe this is commonplace behavior among all engineers?
- badtuple 3y agoThey didn't say all engineers, and I certainly wouldn't assert that. But I've definitely seen it personally at 2 early stage startups, a moderate-ish size business, and a Fortune 100. Just a handful of people, but they were very open about it. Those around them simply participated in the conversation and didn't judge. It was never framed as "abuse." It was talked about very casually as a tool to get more work done, and they deliberately sought out an ADHD diagnosis for access. I'm in no way judging. They DID get a diagnosis and are using it as treatment. The reason it's relevant is because _they_ talked about it as a tool to get more work done, or a way to be "on" after a late night. Not as part of treatment. But there are tons of reasons why that could be, none of which can be assumed.
- soultrees 3y agoI can attest. A lot of people with ADHD will gravitate towards cannabis because of the focussing effect. Cannabis affects everyone different and some people need to sink into the couch after smoking, but myself I usually find myself going for a bike ride, working in excel, code, or cleaning, which is a big one. That said, I have worked for one of the largest cannabis companies in the world (at the time) and I can say, some of the most productive people I know are all day, every day smokers. A lot of them should have been on some sort of adhd meds for sure but if the cannabis is working, and it keeps them off pharmaceuticals then what’s the harm? It really did change my perception of how some people operate while stoned. All that said, it’s easy to use cannabis as a crutch, it’s definitely not healthy in other ways but there are worse things to be hooked on.
- mrguyorama 3y agoI find weed helps eliminate the "choice paralysis" that I have with my ADHD, but the other things it does, like making boring and tedious and repetitive things fun, make it TERRIBLE to self medicate with.
- zxexz 3y agoI've worked at a fair few companies of various sizes. I've never seen this behavior. Many SWEs I've known are on stimulant ADHD meds, but I've only ever found out about it after knowing them for awhile. The same goes for people in other professions though - I think I actually know MORE people outside of tech than in it that take are prescribed ADHD meds. And I definitely have never heard people sharing strategies for getting their dose upped. TBH most ADHD people I know (but not all) seize any chance they can to skip taking their meds. I wonder if you work in a particular field? I've never worked in finance but that aligns with the totally unjustified stereotype of that industry.
- astrange 3y ago> TBH most ADHD people I know (but not all) seize any chance they can to skip taking their meds. That would have to be stimulants, because all the other kinds are very unpleasant to quit suddenly. (This is the opposite of the common belief that stimulants are addictive and everything else is safe.)
- gymbeaux 3y agoBig if true. I only know of a couple of SWEs who get high on THC regularly, and they both claim to not get high during work hours. I don’t use anything to aid in my work, be it Adderall or THC or alcohol or anything else… but if y’all do, what does that say about or society and the pigs who run it?
- rizky05 3y agoExcept caffeine. And maybe some taurine/nicotine.
- ChoHag 3y ago[dead]
- teaearlgraycold 3y agoI'm a SWE that loves THC. Honestly, I can not accomplish anything cognitive while high. I lose my train of thought much too easily. I've tried programming high and there's no way I could make that work. Cleaning however is a different story.
- mercurialsolo 3y agoWhere is this locality? This sounds like one to be made into a skit.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoFor me.. at least... hard to imagine writing code under that particular influence. Not exactly a bringer of good concentration and mental clarity. I've known people who could do it, but nobody I know personally who is a really good developer is doing this? Esp during work hours? Seems counterproductive.
- tayo42 3y agoIdk it works for me. Cant really explain it. I get more excited sometimes, in the zone, makes the tedious parts bearable,think about solutions differently. I don't do it often though. It's never like, I need to get high to code. Its usually like, I'm high and some interesting coding thing comes up.
- brotchie 3y agoYeah. I’ve done some handy waves experiments for science (generally don’t like THC as a drug). Watch a super intellectual YouTube video that’s at the bounds of my understanding (e.g. Leonard Susskind’s Stanford lectures on quantum physics). While watching sober it’s intellectually stimulating and I really enjoy it. While on THC I can’t grasp what he’s talking about and I attribute him to be just spouting bullshit that’s made up. That convinced me that THC has a negative hit to cognitive function. However it makes other things feel more awesome and “in flow”: food, music, bedroom activities.
- kalb_almas 3y agoTHC affects people very differently in my experience. It can really run the gamut from sedative to stimulant to psychedelic depending on the person. I don't think the sativa-indica dichotomy can fully explain this because the same variety of effects can be seen from a single bowl or bag of edibles.
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoYeah, for me, just not a chemical I enjoy, so. Clouds my thinking, which isn't unexpected, but also seems to do the opposite of what it does for other people: I get anxious and paranoid, and background body pain (I have a lot) becomes mentally attenuated. And yes, tried different strains, etc and it's legal here so I could have whatever I want whenever, but I really couldn't be bothered.
- p-e-w 3y ago> I guarantee you most people in your industry are on it all the time. I guarantee you that they aren't. This is the standard occupational bias of someone who interacts with a highly specific subset of the population all day, and then generalizes from that experience. Same as cops who see violent criminals everywhere, even though in reality they make up a tiny fraction of people overall.
- Fauntleroy 3y agoThis is definitely untrue and based on false assumptions. While many certainly are, "most" is an egregious overestimation.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoSome people believe "everyone is on drug X all the time" because they are themselves on drug X all the time. I see this quite a bit. It's just projection most of the time, but sometimes it can be true. I hope weed and software is not one of them...
- mrguyorama 3y agoI cannot imagine attempting to write software while high on weed. Maybe this explains the abysmal quality of software.
- n3v3r3v3r 3y agoI'd argue quite the opposite for the most part. Sure, the actual process of typing out software while stoned is basically a non-starter but the context-shifting nature of the substance has been responsible for a number of fascinating personal insights related to programming. If any drugs in particular are responsible for the "abysmal" quality of contemporary code it is the stimulants! (e.g. caffeine, speed.) I would wager that the way these substances allow people to consistently exceed their standard capacity for operating in complexity especially in states of stress and fatigue does not effectively translate to the sober person (then, _especially_, the sedated person as well). Thus a world of sober men is crushed by the designs of a cracked out minority of 10X-ers tasked with integrating the uncertain technology of tomorrow with the half-broken tools of yesterday.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 3y agoDefinitely agree that some intense insights could be gained. Some of my most brilliant insights into stuff i was working on happened while stoned. Though, it happened getting high after work, having done a ton of leg work digging into the problem at hand. Leg work that was both completely necessary, and would've been impossible to do while stoned. I never got anything out of being chronically stoned other than general dysfunction.
- mrguyorama 3y agoI don't know what weed you're smoking that doesn't make you completely unable to do complex thinking tasks. Alternatively maybe it's a dosage thing.
- jonathankoren 3y agoThere's a big difference between getting high or drunk after work, and getting high or drunk at work. I don't think I've ever worked with anyone that did the later.
- soultrees 3y agoI can assure you that you have.
- jonathankoren 3y agoI doubt it. I've never worked with you.
- soultrees 3y agoAddiction is a lot more prevalent than you think.
- anonygler 3y agoAs if I weren’t paranoid enough about the code I write.
- 111111IIIIIII 3y agoI don't know about weed, but every engineer on my team is addicted to caffeine.
- itsyaboi 3y agoThey're probably addicted to sugar too, the rascals.
- AlbertCory 3y ago.. and if you talk to shrinks or marriage counselors, they'll tell you every marriage is in trouble. Skewed sample.
- babyshake 3y agoMost marriages aren't perfect seems like a reasonable position, as is the position that good marriages require effort and maintenance.
- AlbertCory 3y agoI think you missed the point, which wasn't about marriages per se -- it was about skewed samples.
- gumballindie 3y ago> “What do you do? Ah, a software engineer. I guarantee you most people in your industry are on it all the time.” No, most people aren't on it all the time. And those who are aren't "highly functional". They think they are, but they aren't and it shows. Most of those who are are ridden by mental health issues, and stuck in an endless loop, living a rather boring and average life, with delusions of performance and greatness. Thinking that somehow being a drug addict is hip and goes with the software industry is a little bit daft.