

Hacking on Drugs? - dasmithii

I&#x27;ve read quite a few books by Oliver Sacks in which he described frantic nights of reading&#x2F;writing on amphetamines.<p>Although I&#x27;m not into drugs myself, I&#x27;m interested to know what others have heard or experienced. Thoughts? Experiences? Stories?
======
dreammachines
Regular HN user here; throwaway account.

I'm a regular user of cannabis (I smoke everyday after dinner, around 9pm or
so). I frequently watch math/CS lectures, write code, and read technical books
when high.

I find that it helps me a lot both with focusing, and with creative thought.
Ideas flow more easily, bits of knowledge connect on their own. I've most
certainly gotten productive work done while high. Recollection is not too much
of an issue, but I recommend heavy use of a notebook to keep track of what
you're doing, and so that you can refer to it the next day.

I've never used drugs other than weed/psychedelics, mostly because I find that
stuff nasty and stay away from it, so I can't comment on that. It's close to
impossible for me to get anything done during a shroom trip- however, when the
trip ends, I enter a phase of extreme lucidity and am able to focus in a way
that I've never been to sober.

Relevant details: I am a cofounder at a small but growing SF tech startup. I
also believe I have Asperger's (I've always been that super weird kid) & ADD
(I have a really hard time focusing and sticking to a single task, and the
feeling of extreme focus and lucidity I experience at the end of a shroom trip
feels to me like it should be the way my brain should always be), and that my
brain chemistry behaves in a very atypical way with such substances (my gf has
remarked several times that I am way more lucid and coherent than anyone else
she knows on drugs) - I am currently in the process of getting those things
professionally diagnosed. I've gotten my IQ assessed as a teenager, it was in
the ~150 range.

Finally, the bay area is super open to that. I regularly smoke weed and talk
CS theory/math with friends who work at large famous tech companies, and a
certain subset of employees at a well known large tech company with a knack
for design absolutely love the Ploom Pax [0].

[0] [http://www.ploom.com/pax](http://www.ploom.com/pax)

~~~
aclevernickname
> I recommend heavy use of a notebook to keep track of what you're doing, and
> so that you can refer to it the next day.

I've been using basket [1] for almost a decade to overcome cannabis-related
memory-loss and organization issues. Even in it's semi-broken Qt4 version,
it's still one of the three killer apps for the KDE desktop (clementine and
krita being the others). I'd love to find a replacement, but nothing really
comes close.

[1] [http://basket.kde.org](http://basket.kde.org)

------
kennethtilton
A double shot of espresso is great, I have a million ideas all at once and am
juiced to do it all. I get absolutely nothing done until it wears off and then
I need a nap. hth.

------
digitalvortex
These drugs gives your momentarily high with changes in chemical and hormonal
level and you feel good, but when this goes on for a long time, you body gets
accustomed to that level of chemical increase and you get addicted.

Stay away from drugs and drug users. These things look fabulous in movies but
never works in real life.

~~~
Quarrelsome
That totally depends on which drug we're talking about and amphetamines only
provide habitual addiction at best.

Don't preach to others if you lack the experience yourself.

------
dylanhassinger
I find it hard to sit in one place and build mental context without something
that takes the edge off/slows down my brain. For me, that's marijuana and
sometimes adderall or flexeril. But adderall has nasty side effects, so I'm
looking for a natural substitute.

fwiw, I am disagnosed aspergers (mild) and ADHD

------
nmbdesign
Nootropics - maybe Drug grugs - no-no.

------
GuiA
There is a relevant post by user 'dreammachines', but it is marked as dead.

(side note- I wish HN had a better policy for dead/banned accounts. I often
see quality posts that are marked as dead and therefore no one can
read/respond to them- don't forget to enable showdead in your account settings
for the full HN experience! :P)

Copy paste of said post:

\---

Regular HN user here; throwaway account.

I'm a regular user of cannabis (I smoke everyday after dinner, around 9pm or
so). I frequently watch math/CS lectures, write code, and read technical books
when high. I find that it helps me a lot both with focusing, and with creative
thought. Ideas flow more easily, bits of knowledge connect on their own. I've
most certainly gotten productive work done while high. Recollection is not too
much of an issue, but I recommend heavy use of a notebook to keep track of
what you're doing, and so that you can refer to it the next day.

I've never used drugs other than weed/psychedelics, mostly because I find that
stuff nasty and stay away from it, so I can't comment on that. It's close to
impossible for me to get anything done during a shroom trip- however, when the
trip ends, I enter a phase of extreme lucidity and am able to focus in a way
that I've never been to sober.

Relevant details: I am a cofounder at a small but growing SF tech startup. I
also believe I have Asperger's (I've always been that super weird kid) & ADD
(I have a really hard time focusing and sticking to a single task, and the
feeling of extreme focus and lucidity I experience at the end of a shroom trip
feels to me like it should be the way my brain should always be), and that my
brain chemistry behaves in a very atypical way with such substances (my gf has
remarked several times that I am way more lucid and coherent than anyone else
she knows on drugs) - I am currently in the process of getting those things
professionally diagnosed. I've gotten my IQ assessed as a teenager, it was in
the ~150 range.

Finally, the bay area is super open to that. I regularly smoke weed and talk
CS theory/math with friends who work at large famous tech companies, and a
certain subset of employees at a well known large tech company with a knack
for design absolutely love the Ploom Pax [0]. [0]
[http://www.ploom.com/pax](http://www.ploom.com/pax)

~~~
sixQuarks
I find that smoking pot after a few days of intense but sober
learning/thinking does wonders as it allows you to look at the problem at a
different angle. I've regularly solved or gotten great insights doing this.

I've literally had million dollar ideas while high.

~~~
eurleif
>I've literally had million dollar ideas while high.

So, just to clarify: you're currently a millionaire?

~~~
sixQuarks
One of the sites I thought up while high has done over $1 million in Adsense
profits over the past 10 years. Doesn't mean I'm a millionaire though, it's
expensive living in the Bay Area.

