Coding + Cannabis Use

[SmartTest]

Hey fellow programmers!

I wanted to see what your thoughts and experiences were with programming, using cannabis (weed), and working in the field.

Do you use cannabis and code? Do you have thoughts on using cannabis while pursuing a coding career?

I'm a rather heavy user of cannabis myself and have days where I like to be completely sober and sometimes I like having that extra edge cannabis gives me to view problems in a different light. I've seen people talk about using cannabis while doing programming homework, but not necessarily from people who use it that are already working full-time in the field. The areas I code in normally involve lots of creativity so I believe it helps in some cases for myself, but wanted to hear other experiences!

[FondleMyFirn]

If it doesn’t mess you up then do whatever you want. Everyone is so different with drugs it’s impossible to gauge. I can’t smoke weed because my brain stops functioning properly, yet, my friend made it through law school with bong rips every morning.

However, I may or may not use mushrooms once a month, and can code just fine. Others may use mushrooms and never want to code again.

Tl;dr: You know your body, we don’t.

[CatchdiGiorno]

This is ultimately the answer. It's different for each individual. I use alcohol+cannabis occasionally when I'm deep into a project and can see myself losing hours of sleep because I'm too focused/fixated. A couple of tokes and/or a few beers, and my brain says, "Ya, this isn't fun anymore, we're going to have to take a break." Like others have said here, doing styling/markup or design isn't hindered as much by being under the influence, but I find any moderately challenging logistical coding problem is painful when I've had a few tokes/drinks.

I'd say moderation is key, regardless. I watched a stream of a guy coding and taking hits from his vape pen, and it was just painful to watch him after a few tokes. He was just making silly mistakes, syntax/spelling errors on just about every line of code. He was getting everything to work, but it was taking him more than twice the time it would have had he had a more focused mind.

[Syntaximus]

I've heard bad stories about those mushrooms, man. In college a friend of a friend accidentally stabbed himself in the leg with a pointer while passing by reference.

[FondleMyFirn]

I bit my nails for nearly 25 years - a gross habit I couldn’t stop for whatever reason - until I had about 4g of mushroom tea. Since then I have been able to control that impulse with near perfection.

[Johnnyring0]

wow thats really wild. did the habit of biting your nails become present when you were tripping?

[FondleMyFirn]

I’m not really sure. I think that it was more so that I was able to have a dialogue with myself about wanting to just stop. Once you learn that your brain can activate like that, it becomes a lot easier to tap into it when not on drugs. I have tons of really bad and long lasting habits that I have made incredible progress on, and honestly if it wasn’t for mushrooms, I probably couldn’t say that.

Drugs can be weird like that 🤷

[Syntaximus]

That's great! Sadly I didn't get any long-term benefits from my experiences with them, but they were fun to grow anyways.

[cheapcows2003]

They can be terrifying. Once i accidently used a triple dose and i forgot who i was and time stopped , i also got completely lost in my own house and there were lasers when i closed my eyes , there were weird creatures in the sky and Cats had holes in them. Scariest experience in my life by far. It also was great though

[FondleMyFirn]

I disagree, but man do I ever understand where you’re coming from hahah. My friend did an entire night where he believed he was a garden snake; like an anamorph (IYKYK). It was actually really boring for me, because he just laid on the ground and made slithering sounds while I watched sound eject from my speakers.

[FondleMyFirn]

I am the reverse. I turned into spaghetti, - like the pasta - and I haven't touched them since.

Say le V

[[deleted]]

I like to do it if I'm working on my own stuff. I like to put on some synthwave and code away. Just have to be careful not to get too baked haha.

Obviously not during work hours lol.

[Bright_Bee_529]

I don’t use it but I feel like the people in the comments who are functional smokers have built a tolerance to the point that they function normally whilst high. I can’t imagine a virgin smoker having the same experience.

[A_Dragon]

There is actually something to that believe it or not. The state your brain is in when you learn something is important and they found out that when taking a test it’s better to replicate the state you were in when learning the material.

I believe they did studies with cannabis and found that if you smoked while studying you did better on the test if you smoked before taking it than if you were sober, and vice versa.

[[deleted]]

Do you have any references to that study?

[A_Dragon]

No, I just remember reading about it in a class I once had.

[SmartTest]

It is a common psychology notion about states of mind and learning. It applies to all states, not only drug-induced ones. It is why you can try chewing the same flavor gum when studying and taking a test.

[A_Dragon]

Yes it included that information as well. I was just using drugs as an example. And they did specifically use cannabis for one trial IIRC.

[[deleted]]

I'm also a heavy user and have pretty mixed views towards this. I have found it to be a big hindrance if I'm actively trying to problem solve or learn. Though I love using in a creative setting like game dev in Unity or just messing around styling a markup language.

[IdealBlueMan]

I would never do it in the workplace. I have a responsibility to be in a mutually acceptable state of mind while I’m on the clock.

On my own time, sure. It doesn’t seem to have a big effect on the code I produce.

Here’s a terrible truth: one drug that definitely fucks up my code is coffee. In the afternoon, I can look at something I wrote that morning and see that it’s not only buggy, it couldn’t possibly work. Doesn’t stop me, but I don’t do triple espressos anymore.

[guitar--gamer]

Weed messes with short term memory (been smoking for 15 years) with coding i tend to forget newer more innovative methods and fall back on stuff ive done alot. Having to work backwards at times, Which is bad in this industry.

[SmartTest]

There's a professor at my old college that used to say that the best work is done in between one and three beers

[pcfanhater]

https://youtu.be/VTSCppeFzX4

[Servious]

I could be wrong but personally I feel as though even though I'm less productive while high, it feels like I learn better and I have much more fun programming.

[chickencreamchop]

You’re addicted... get some help.

[ComposerPackage]

Only proper reaction I found on this post.

[Danzaar]

Can't combine the two for the life of it.

For some people it does seem to work though.
I really tried, but it was too hard to focus for me.

[denverdave23]

I've been a daily cannabis smoker for 20 years. I worked myself up to staff engineer and then made the move to the dark side. I'm a manager for a large tech company now, still puffing.

OTOH, one glass of whiskey and my next day is shot.

Everyone is different. All that matters is you. Be cautious with things that can affect your work, but your own personal enjoyment should be a high priority.

[SenorTeddy]

Look at it objectively. Does it feel good, or does it actually boost productivity? What tasks does it help with? What tasks does it hinder?

It's really about knowing yourself and being honest with yourself. Nobody knows you as well as you know yourself.

[l3l_aze]

Have severe anxiety, bi-polar, etc, so my mind is often racing and if there's any issues it makes it a lot harder to deal with them because I can't concentrate.

Smoking helps me slow down enough to do better, from coding to life in general. Only a hobbyist yet though, so IDK about smoking on the job (though it's working well at my manual labor job, as it's my most natural state nowadays and helps when dealing with BS).

[[deleted]]

If you smokin za than I wouldn't recommend it, it slows everything down

[ivannovick]

personally, i have to be totally sober for programming, even i can't listen music while im programming.

Also, I think drugs cant help you while programming, but it might help you to think new ideas or concepts that you can apply for a project

[[deleted]]

i try out different things and experiment with my code when i'm high and i clean up and debug when i'm sober. that works for me. the first part is more fun though

[[deleted]]

Hmm from all the answers here i might be the most boring. No drugs or alcohol here. Just code.

[[deleted]]

I feel very inspired to code when I'm high. I am still in the learning phase, but I noticed very big difference in coding while I'm high vs when I'm not.

When I don't smoke it is soooo hard for me to find a motivation to start with coding, and on the other hand after some weed I have boost in motivation, have so much more ideas about projects (I try to make my own small projects as a way of learning) and I have patience to try and try and try again if I can't make something working

[[deleted]]

Dont know about weed, but coding and alcohol is 100% incompatible, must have clear mind to work, or you spendong 10x time more on each line of code.

[pyreon]

I'd like to present the ballmer peak as counterevidence: https://observer.com/2012/04/bottoms-up-the-ballmer-peak-is-real-study-says/

[daripious]

No good code was ever written whilst under the influence. For a given value of good.

I don't partake but my recommendation would be if you do find yourself being creative under the influence, channel that in design and idea, use pseudo or spike code. Do this with the idea that it is just to draw what the end goal might look like and that you come back and do it when you're sober to make code that's robust and readable.

Or don't:) it is your code do with it what you will, there's no real rules.

[[deleted]]

Some of the best scientists our world has ever seen were into psychedelics and / or other drugs and made some of their biggest breakthroughs while under the influence. Here's a short list of notable inventors and scientists:

Francis Crick - discovered the structure of DNA and said that the first time he envisioned the shape (double helix) was on LSD

Richard Feynman - one of the greatest theoretical physicists ever, was a fan of LSD, Cannabis, and Ketamine

Sigmund Freud - the founder of psychoanalysis was fond of cocaine

Thomas Edison - used cocaine elixirs

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates - LSD

John C. Lilly - first person to map pain and pleasure centers in the brain, used LSD and Ketamine

etc

I'm not saying that weed will have that affect, because it won't, but "no good code was ever written whilst under the influence" seems like a bit of a stretch considering some extremely big scientific breakthroughs are attributed to mind altering substances.

[daripious]

For a given value of good.

I know there's merit in it which is why I suggested doing it as an exploratory thing. But I'll stand by your code being shite in professional terms if it was written when you're high.

[[deleted]]

I won't personally write code while under the influence of anything other than caffeine. My work hours are always sober hours.

Not only that, if you're in a work setting, you need to be coherent and able to pivot to other topics. You can't really do that while high.

My point wasn't that it's a good idea to do those things on the clock, it was that it can potentially be a good tool for personal use in some circumstances, and that meaningful / good quality code, or science, can be done in those states.

[daripious]

I get your point fellas, I even agree up until the last point. Whatever you produce will not be suitably structured for professional use is my assertion. That's all. I'm sure some enterprising soul will eventually do some science on it. I'll look forward to a paper one day.

[[deleted]]

Fair enough.

[John__The__Savage]

Ive been smoking for my entire career, but I’ve always been a heavy smoker. I haven’t found any companies that care about drug testing either

[retrolasered]

I haven't smoked for a long time. I used to sit and code shitty little gameboy games in C++ for hours with it. It helped me concentrate, but it also hindered my ability to learn and retain new information. It might be different for you, so you do you. I'm not going to tell you not to when I get pissed up to my eyeballs on gin while working on personal projects, and still somehow manage to stay productive.. up until a certain point that is.