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Comment by twirlip | Hacker News Reader

And that doesn't include self-medication with alcohol or marijuana and so forth.

Admittedly I 'self-medicate' with marijuana. It has completely transformed me. I used to play video games and basically do nothing, but with marijuana I'm insanely productive.

I'm talking do the 9-5 on coffee only, then go home and worth 4-6 more hours on programming projects.

I have a fanbase for my website, I have transformed my programming abilities, and I've grown a non-profit.

I'm not sure I can work this many hours daily completely sober. My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3.

Would you be willing to elaborate on the dosing schedule you follow?

Sure,

Survive/caffeine through the 9-5.

Nap for 20 minutes(biphasic sleep), I can send you a link for details. Me and the wife have been doing this for years.

Then I have a paxx which holds ~1/8 of g. I'll take that 2-3 puffs. That is usually very light but changes things for 90 minutes.

Then I'll use the paxx to completion. Similar time line.

Then I'll light the toasted paxx extra.

Thats at least 4 hours of focus. I often still need music to get started, but I can totally crush hours of work with the extra energy.

In that regard, I could see it work. How much do you do? If you set aside time to do something, start getting in the flow, and then take a hit... it sort of starts a "new day" mentally because everything is a little more interesting. Then you can pop out a few hours. But with too much I get braindead and just want to listen to music and muse.

Dammit, yet another weirdo ruining marijuana's carefully cultivated slacker image. ;)

I have a friend who reacts to marijuana similarly to what you describe and it still boggles my mind that two people can take the same drug and react in nearly opposite ways.

Anecdote: My mom has never done any drugs etc but first time she caught me smoking she said: "some people do drugs, drugs do most people". I'll never forget and it's true in my experience.

Inanity masquerading as profundity.

Do you use indica or sativa? How do the psychoactive affects not interfere with your productivity? Any memory problems?

Ultimately this is what ended the scheme for me. People started to tell me they'd had the same conversation with me multiple times in a day. That was a full 6 or 7 years before I finally realized I had to stop. On the plus side I started writing things down a lot more, but that only scales so far. It's a dark period of my life I view as an unfortunate mistake that I wish I'd gotten help with earlier.

On the other hand, I did write some remarkable code during that time, code that has lived on and been put into production systems and been relatively bug free and profitable. My method was to get everything I needed ready; source sync'd, computer running, editor open, then and only then dose. Removing all distractions at the start was key. I could not, however, imagine actually learning how to code, under those conditions.

My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3.

Really depends on the person. What I noticed halfway year 2 or so already is that the productivity gain was like 50% or lsess of what it was in the beginning (I did use already before that, but was studying then - sidenote: a small dose worked extremely well to completely kill any pre-exam stress I always had and my grades were better than ever). Worse, the creativity which was basically what I did it all for went down even more. Only way to get that back was not use for a week or so. Quit after year 5 but by that time other substances had come into play as well and things weren't too good anymore. I don't think I could still work those insane hours sober every single day, but I also wouldn't want it: there is so much more to life than just work/party.

I've come to really enjoy pot since graduating college. For the first two years out of school I began smoking daily - largely for self medicating purposes. I eventually had to take a break because I found my relationship with the substance unhealthy and basically became a lazy pot head with my head in the clouds even when not high. I do want to re-introduce pot into my life because I do really enjoy the mental state and it helps me get excited about learning physics and math after work which is something I try to push my self to do. I think, ultimately, my issue is moderation. If a smoke a little in the evening before diving into a subject there isn't really anything stopping me from just getting blazed and watching youtube videos - which would be fine if it didn't completely dull my mental edge the following day. I look forward to retirement where I can just go full pot head.

That's awesome. I personally used to be a daily smoker (like start the day with a bowl, end the day with a dab type smoker). It definitely was insanely beneficial for me at first. After about 5 years, it lost its magical effects for me because my tolerance was too high. I took an extended tolerance break and when I came back, something still wasn't quite right and I've been sober ever since. My productivity has increased and I'm feeling a lot better.

I hope cannabis continues to work well for you. For me personally, I hit this wall at around 5 years of daily smoking. I can't imagine how my life being on it's current trajectory without it though. It really was a big boon to my creativity, productivity, and life.

For those who have never tried or have only used prohibition era cannabis, sativas and indicas have significantly different effects. With the ability to choose your strains, you really can craft your experience. Cannabis can be a very powerful tool. Also, please, don't take this as an endorsement to go out and try it. That's a very personal decision in my opinion like whether to consume alcohol or not.

I think nicotine use and mental health have a strong correlation also.

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