Not me. I'm of the opinion that lighting things on fire and sticking them near your head to breathe just sounds like a bad idea all the way around.
I'm for legalization though. The idea of outlawing a weed that does less harm than alcohol is ludicrous.
I experimented a bit as a teenager. As I recall, it didn't help my analytical skills at all -- unless by analytical skills you mean finding doughnuts at 3am or being able to smile stupidly while listening to Led Zeppelin tunes.
I think intoxication is a natural state of mankind, so if you like toking or drinking or running until endorphins seep out of your ears I can understand that. I just don't think any of that, no matter how good it feels, actually makes you a better coder. If anything, I think good coders learn the natural rhythms of their bodies and minds, then maximize their performance based on that.
Now can it make you think you're a better coder? Sure thing, boss.
I think a lot of people come to the mistaken conclusion that smoking pot makes you "stupid." I don't think it necessarily impairs cognitive performance as much as it makes it seem less important. If we were passing around a joint and before I had to hit it again, I had to multiply two 3-digit numbers together and translate a a paragraph into spanish, I could. But smoking makes you less likely to approach a problem like that. It allows you to take in perspectives other than your own.
While smoking, I have uncovered repressed memories of childhood, resolved interpersonal conflicts, and redesigned interfaces.
Calling a high person "stupid" is like calling someone stupid because they speak a different language, or calling a child stupid because they ask a question about something that seems trivial.
I've always felt that weed helps one reconcile disparate concepts. When you take off all your different hats and just look at the problem with a more basic human perspective, without the little compartments into which we organize all our issues. Of course, some people can achieve this level of perspective without drugs, more power to them. Similarly, some people react differently to marijuana - bummer for them. I smoke regularly, but not when I need to code - it's not that I can't code, it's just horrendously unappealing when high.
The bottom line is just knowing what helps you accomplish what and when to take part. I speak significantly better french with a little booze in me and I design better logos after a few hits. Some people are better designers and french speakers than me without ever having tried either.
I don't think he is saying that 'smoking pot makes you "stupid"'. The point he makes is that empirical observations about your own performance, while on a mind-altering drug, are inherently flawed.
Empirical observations about your own performance are inherently flawed while not on a mind-altering drug, barring measurement/metrics. If you're measuring, I can't imagine how your state of mind could affect those.
If you want good separation, find a metric that can be recorded/played back.
I thought we were hackers? There are obvious solutions here...
I do have issues with the smoke myself, and I indulge maybe once in a few months, so I never get used to it. Although I find the effects of marijuana to be far, far superior to alcohol or most other drugs, for me anyway.
Anyone tried vaporators? Supposedly they heat the bud to the point of releasing essential oils into the air, but not to the point of ignition.
I wonder if any hardware hackers here have applied their skills to drug consumption? For instance, I know a guy who has produced ingenious contraptions for nitrous oxide delivery.
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!)
Vaporizers are my preferred way of consuming. Ever since I got a good quality vaporizer, I don't smoke anymore. It's a lot cleaner than smoking (though not totally tar-free, but close enough), and it saves you money. In my non-scientific estimation, I think I use about 1/4 of what I would if I was smoking. It also seems like a cleaner high, often times more energetic, and I come down from the high smoother.
I have the HerbalAIRE Vaporizer H2.1 (http://www.gotvape.com/store/herbalaire.vaporizer.php). You can set the temperature for (which it regulates), and it fills up a bag. It's not a Volcano, but its good enough (costed $250 vs the ~$600 Volcano). I built my own from a soldering iron before, but it just doesn't work as well as it took 10-15 minutes before it was ready, whereas this one takes about 3-5 minutes. Buying a good quality vaporizer is well worth the money vs making your own, unless you are skilled enough to make your own quality vaporizer (with proper temperature control).
Also, cooking it in oil/butter is also a healthier alternative (the healthiest alternative probably). I do that as well, but that's more for when I will be out in public where I can't use my vaporizer (really great for concerts for example). I generally cook the oil or butter into baked goods (brownies or chocolate chip cookies), or sometimes take spoonfuls of the oil straight.
The only problem with both of these methods is that you are committing to using a certain amount and its harder to regulate how high you get. With eating it, you don't feel it for an hour or so, so its sometimes hard to judge how much you need unless you've already tried a batch. With vaporizers, whatever you put into the vaporizer gets used up, and you can either waste it by not inhaling it all, or inhale it all which could lead to getting higher than you wanted to. With smoking its easier to regulate as you can just put it out or not toke again; or take your time between tokes.
As for actually using when coding, I do occasionally work on my personal projects after getting high; but this is more because I'm obsessed with coding and working on these projects more than purposefully getting high with the intentions of sitting down and coding.
I don't know if it improves my abilities, really, but it does make doing mundane tasks more tolerable. It allows me to focus and get lost in the problem. And also I sometimes do brainstorming and come up with ideas which I quickly note down before I forget. It makes my imagination start to think about the problems I am working on, which leads to actually having the motivation to try out what I'm imagining, hence why I often end up coding after I get high (though generally after I've come down a bit). The idea that pot de-motivates you is a myth in my opinion.
And yes, I created this account just to post in thread, and have a separate HN account for non-incriminating conversations :)
> Buying a good quality vaporizer is well worth the money vs making your own, unless you are skilled enough to make your own quality vaporizer (with proper temperature control).
I don't smoke pot (I would try some, but I don't care enough to actually find someone who sells it), but I am sorely tempted to make a vaporizer and put the schematics online. Does it just need to maintain a constant temperature in a small area? That sounds like a pretty fun project. I imagine you could make a control system pretty easily with a few op-amps and a basic temperature sensor.
I'm for legalization though. The idea of outlawing a weed that does less harm than alcohol is ludicrous.
I experimented a bit as a teenager. As I recall, it didn't help my analytical skills at all -- unless by analytical skills you mean finding doughnuts at 3am or being able to smile stupidly while listening to Led Zeppelin tunes.
I think intoxication is a natural state of mankind, so if you like toking or drinking or running until endorphins seep out of your ears I can understand that. I just don't think any of that, no matter how good it feels, actually makes you a better coder. If anything, I think good coders learn the natural rhythms of their bodies and minds, then maximize their performance based on that.
Now can it make you think you're a better coder? Sure thing, boss.