The trouble with drinking, the trouble with me | Hacker News Reader

The trouble with drinking, the trouble with me

paulcarr.com

57 pointscj16 comments

This reminds me of a (probably apocryphal) story I once heard about Charles De Gaulle. Supposedly, once he made up his mind to quit smoking, he rounded up all of his staff for a meeting.

He then pronounced, "From this moment onwards, none of you will ever see me smoke a single cigarette." True to his word, he quit entirely and permanently. He was incredibly proud, and the fear of being caught was a massive and effective deterrent to cheating.

It seems like Mr. Carr is trying to take the same tack. I wish him the best of luck with it, alcoholism can be quite pernicious and difficult to kick.

Probably the most important thing about quitting alcohol, or at least cutting back, is to determine which members of your social group are intentionally or unintentionally fueling the addiction. I've noticed a disturbing trend with alcoholics where they seem to adopt more serious alcoholics into their social group as a tool to justify their own comparatively tame alcoholism. I like to have a few drinks but man, Johnny... that guy is a REAL alcoholic. Let's buy him some drinks and watch him fall down! Anyone who gets uncomfortable or defensive over another person quitting any addiction is a dangerous influence. If they can't accept you as a non-drinker then you need to be willing to cut them loose.

And what sells the most books and makes people read blog posts – losing loves, getting arrested, being fired, inching towards cirrhosis of the liver – is not actually that much fun when it’s you doing it.

Yep. Drama follows people like us everywhere. Takes guts to put it out there, being sober today (I am, too). Congrats. A lot of writers tend to burn hard and crash, and I don't want to end up there, either.

To quote a friend of mine: "It's kind of a bumpy, unrewarding ride anyway. I don't recommend. One star on Yelp for health benefits."

Just wait until sobriety pays Yelp to move a positive review to the top.

I think he's right about announcing his decision being a good tool to help him quit. Of course, if he fails, it will backfire. Also, I don't want to raise awareness and encourage people to try using that tool, except to those who can directly benefit from it. If publicly announcing your decision to quit was widely viewed as an acceptable course of action, failing to follow through would be viewed as an acceptable course of action as well.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

Hunter S. Thompson

They didn't work so well for him when he put that final gun in his mouth.

Look, I'm a big HST fan, and the drugs, alcohol, violence and insanity sure led to some great times for his readers. For his family, and in the end for himself--not so much.

Thompson didn't commit suicide in some Kurt Cobain "woe is me" manner. He shot himself at age 67 after battling painful and chronic medical conditions, when he decided he had lived a full life and wanted to go.

I'm not trying to advocate alcohol & drug use, I just thought it was a fun quote and somewhat on-topic. It's supposed to be tongue in cheek, at least that's how I interpret it.

Why is this on HN?

I imagine it's because he's a fairly well known tech writer.

"... Why is this on HN? ..."

Good question.

Think of it as a kind of message from the future from the non-nerds ~ http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html A message from all the cool kids at school who smoked, drank and who now hit a certain age realise it wasn't such a smart idea after all, but didn't want to stand out amongst their peers. The kids that are dead or in wheel chairs probably already know this.

That's the message smokers and drinkers of my youth seem to tell me.

Bummer ... I'm a nerd that smokes ... guess I'll die soon without being cool.

"... I'm a nerd that smokes ... guess I'll die soon without being cool. ..."

The good thing, the faster you give up, the more chance you have to recover.

From my own experience (and why I upvoted), pointing out a word of advice to young HNs - entrepreneurship when it goes, goes up fast and along with it comes parties, alcohol, "social meetings", etc. Easy to get lost. Not 100% relevant to the story, but relevant to members of the board.

So people can make links to game theory, signaling, and other HN topics?

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