coding + substances

[joshstrike]

I ran into a guy at a party last week who does db design and swears he works better when he's stoned. I can't even figure out how to work a light switch when I'm high, and he was the first coder I've ever talked to who could work baked...although I've known plenty of hardware networking dudes who traveled everywhere with a dropper of Visine.

Just curious if any brave soul around here is willing to make the bold statement that they can and do code after smoking a bowl. Or anything else. For me, I can code moderately drunk -- up to about the fifth beer, which fits nicely with my off-hours schedule -- and I absolutely can't code at all if I don't have a cigarette in arm's length. I'm at a bar as I write this, doing what I do. I tried coding on coke a couple times but I ended up playing video games within a few minutes. I despise coke anyway; waste of money, waste of time and a nasty hangover to boot; haven't done it for years.

Anyway, post your favorite mind-altering regimen, if you have one, and if you dare =\

[Loyal Rogue]

Depends on what you're use to.
When I was in my partying days (read: from 9yrs old until I got married), I didn't spend a waking moment without being under the influence of something or other... and I couldn't actually function if I was ever in that unfamiliar state of being "sober".
I worked several types of jobs and successfully managed several businesses and was always the first in line to get a promotion.
Like I said, it all depends on what you're use to.
(in my case, I grew up with a Dad who was a dealer in the 70's-80's. When I had a loose tooth he would rub some coke on it so I could pull it with my fingers. When I was 7 and we took road trips, my job was to roll the joints and mix the wine coolers while he drove. When he was with a couple of women up in his bedroom and didn't want to be disturbed I was welcome to help myself to one of the garbage bags full of weed in the kitchen or the candy dish full of ludes on the bar to keep from being bored.)

Now that I've been through several years of marriage/struggle/change, and have grudgingly given up everything but my alcohol pleasures, I can honestly say it's now the opposite, and I probably couldn't get anything done if I took a step backwards and indulged again.

[WannaBe_80z]

Interesting topic but I highly doubt this will stay around with our board rating and all...

[joshstrike]

I don't know really anything about the ratings system here... hell, I've only been here nine years... never saw a post disappear on me... (?)

Rogue, sounds like you've got some great stories. I grew up in a pretty heavily using family too, without going into too much detail on people who are alive and whatnot. So I'll just say that your experiences resonate, and I've thought a lot about what it meant to grow up around that kind of degeneracy and the fact that I'm more driven than pretty much anyone else I know, and concluded that there's something about seeing the bad example with your own eyes that can be the best deterrent in the world for a kid who might have natural inclinations toward substance abuse. Like yourself, booze (and smokes) are my only vice these days. But I imagine most of the people here had 60's / Vietnam &/or anti-war drug abusing or reactionary parents, which is really a whole series of discussions in itself. So I'd be curious to know whether you ever do your serious work under the influence of alcohol or anything. It's all a battle for me, truth be told.

[Loyal Rogue]

Interesting topic but I highly doubt this will stay around with our board rating and all...

Figured as much, but thought I would give Josh some satisfaction before his thread was sent to the graveyard.

[WannaBe_80z]

I wish we could afford to just take the FK forum db and move it somewhere and self host it so we have all the threads but not limited to "g rated" discussions. I'm sure with this crowd the stories and other topics that would come up would be very entertaining to say the least.

[Loyal Rogue]

So I'd be curious to know whether you ever do your serious work under the influence of alcohol or anything. It's all a battle for me, truth be told.

Do I consider myself an addict?
Yeah, I guess so if I'm going to be honest about it.
Alcoholic, drug addict, sex addict, food addict,.. basically a pleasure addict... as my wife puts it "a creature of the flesh".

I battle with it everyday.

Man, I'd love a smoke right now... been at least 5 years since I "quit" and about a year since I had an odd cigar with a friend.

Yeah, I do my serious work under the influence of alcohol.
I do a 9-5 corporate/union job daily (completely sober) and then come home (and start drinking) to work as a technical partner on the web design/hosting business my wife and I have been running for the last 7 years.
We have hundreds of clients who's businesses depend on us keeping them on the first page of Google (or else) so yes, I would say that qualifies as some "serious work".

[Loyal Rogue]

BTW, if you see me posting after 5pm EST... consider it a PWD... 11am if on my "day off".

[joshstrike]

When I said 'if you dare' I didn't mean fear of FK censorship; I'd be surprised by that; most of us have similar jobs and varying vices and I thought it would be interesting to compare notes, that's all. I meant, 'if you dare' as in, if your clients google you frequently. I post under my real name so I live with whatever I write here forever. And I'm not trying to say I'm a wastoid; just that I happen to have this job where, like you, I get to be a creature of the flesh. That's what it really is. I work hard and I do it all for the eating, the sleeping, the boozing and obviously the snapper. Goes without saying. I'm lucky to have like-minded or at least tolerant clients, and to be blessed with enough success to tell clients who have a problem with any of that to take a hike.

When I say it's a battle, I'm sure you're the same, it's not that I'm not fully functional; I take pride in being 100% hedonistic at the same time as I'm twice as efficient and productive as anyone else I know. If I wasn't that productive, I don't think I'd deserve the pleasure, and I'd deny it to myself.

I just look at my elders and worry that I might start running out of braincells at this rate in 20 or 30 years... and sometimes it's enough to make me think I ought to slow down a bit... but it's most interesting to me why some people seem able to work in one degree of blasted pleasurable overdrive blur, high on everything, while other people find it impossible.

You know, there's a side-question with this, which is, can you work in public? I do almost all my coding at coffee houses and bars. Sometimes the louder it is, the more I can focus. Most people I know need silence and solitude; but for me, silence makes me start picking away at myself, while the immediacy and pressure of not knowing when I'm about to be interrupted makes me focus twice as hard and work twice as fast. Some people love panic mode, when the deadline is right on them. I wonder if these tendencies are related.

[silverx2]

god your such a ****ing starbucks hipster

[joshstrike]

Eh. I don't think of myself as a hipster. And I try not to go to starbucks. But I know what you're trying to say.

Whatever.

[gerbick]

Flashkit has a G-rating. Just a reminder.

[joshstrike]

Gerbick - I'm not really bothered if you want to pull this thread. I understand; I used to be a sysop ages ago. I'm not here primarily to talk about anything other than code. There are plenty of other boards for that.

Still, as a matter of balance, why not set up an adults-only area? Then everyone could get their ya-yas out without running the risk of offending anybody. It sounds like there's some demand for that kind of thing.

Every sober country needs its Las Vegas; the more puritanical it is, the more it needs one. It's a safety valve. Not suggesting we turn the whole board into Berlin 1926, but a little debauched talk never hurt consenting adults, right?

[gshock]

thread should definitely be pulled

[joshstrike]

thread should definitely be pulled

Says this guy. lol.

Keep licking, bud. That boot ain't gonna shine itself.

[joshstrike]

Actually, this is all sort of repellent to me.

Gerbick, I know you're just doing your job, but if I have to always be worried about saying what's on my mind, I'm not really sure what the point is of joining the discussion. This is who I am, I'm neither proud nor ashamed; I've been here a long, long time; if the board doesn't accept a broad range of backgrounds and sometimes-less-than-savory opinions, it's to the greater detriment of the community. This is the same freedom of speech we all value online. Censoring certain words is one thing, but weighing threads based on how their content fits into an arbitrary and ill-defined political, moral or ethical framework seems to me pretty heavy-handed.

It also gives rise to sycophants who pollute the board with a lot of meaningless gibbering. If I can't have a real conversation, again, what's the point? I've always liked this board and it's disappointing to me to see things go down this way. If I'm not wanted, just be forthright about it and I can take my discussions elsewhere.

[lefteyewilly]

all he said was the thread is g-rated. so keep it clean.

I think by getting defensive for no reason isn't helping your cause.

I'm sure if he really didn't like this thread and it's content as it stands now, it would have been closed in a second.

And gshock is NOT a voice of this community, so please never respond or react to his posts.

[Loyal Rogue]

Ditto.
Breathe and relax.
It was just a friendly reminder of what you already knew.
There is a line.
Having an open an honest discussion about your life and experiences is one thing, but glorifying and promoting non-G behavior would be a different story.

[gerbick]

Gerbick - I'm not really bothered if you want to pull this thread. I understand; I used to be a sysop ages ago. I'm not here primarily to talk about anything other than code. There are plenty of other boards for that.

To be honest, I'm on the other side of "G-Rating" as you can get. I'm human, love beer, brutally honest, quite forgiving and above all... curse like a sailor outside of FK. What's censored by FK, it's censored by FK.

I've done my job.

Still, as a matter of balance, why not set up an adults-only area? Then everyone could get their ya-yas out without running the risk of offending anybody. It sounds like there's some demand for that kind of thing.

Would love it. I guess my stance is as long as you don't talk about what you're talking about, in terms of naming it or how to score some; we're good as far as I go.

Every sober country needs its Las Vegas; the more puritanical it is, the more it needs one. It's a safety valve. Not suggesting we turn the whole board into Berlin 1926, but a little debauched talk never hurt consenting adults, right?

Like I said. Just don't name names. And you're talking to the guy who probably coined PWD whilst here at FK. So... I ain't no saint either.

[joshstrike]

Cool. Very cool. I'm glad to hear that.

By default I get defensive about freedoms I rarely exercise, on the off chance that I might want to exercise them one day. I can be completely calm and doing nothing, but if someone tells me to "calm down" or "watch out", I will automatically do the thing that they told me not to do, purely out of contempt for their supine attitude and the authority that instilled it. I look around and wish more people in the world did the same thing. If they did, we wouldn't be exposed to x-rays at the airport and Google wouldn't have disclosed everyone's recent contacts on Buzz, and maybe I could go to at least one local bar and have a smoke in peace.

LoyalRogue, I know we've been in plenty of convos where we've been on opposite sides of the political spectrum, insofar as I'm a fairly left sort of libertarian. But it's nice to have it affirmed that this is a place where a you can go and hang out without having to look over your shoulder. You know, like Cheers. Which was pretty much a G show only with enough of the PG-13 and R-rated subtexts to keep the grown-ups laughing.
So if it seemed like a freak-out, yeah; this convo rose to the level of telling my girlfriend about an hour ago that I think I'm done with FK. Purely on principle. What can I say, I'm a pain in the a**. Anyway, thanks for the re-assurance, I think I'll go back to the AS3 board for another decade or so =)