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Comment by 5trokerac3 | Hacker News Reader

"more benign" !== "benign"

Everyone I know that smokes daily (a lot of people) is less cognitive than those I know who don't smoke, in every arena except artistic pursuits. And not everyone reacts to weed the same way. I decided to quit when I recognized a lessened ability to solve complex coding questions the day after smoking.

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I've met so many proponents of weed who say it makes you more creative and artistic

Trouble is, all these people just smoke up and watch TV instead of doing anything creative

That's not my experience; plenty of productive artists (musicians, actors and photographers) among the smokers I know.

I have also known a number of very bright, productive, motivated, successful scientists, engineers, and developers who consume cannabis.

Some have spoken highly of brainstorming while stoned, fleshing out the details and narrowing their scope and intentions as they sober up, while others say that it helps them concentrate by slowing down their racing thoughts.

And while I've known people who've used it to waste their lives away, that's true of so many things.

Anecdotally, a friend of mine and myself use marijuana down the former route. Fleshing out ideas, exploring thought. In fact, functional programming "clicked" for me when I was high. It was still there in the morning!

But that doesn't mean every thought is going to be valuable, or even good. If treated that way, I think it can be a good tool. I am thankfully not prone to addiction or reliance.

It reminds me of Carl Sagan's thoughts [0] and especially this quote:

> If I find in the morning a message from myself the night before informing me that there is a world around us which we barely sense, or that we can become one with the universe, or even that certain politicians are desperately frightened men, I may tend to disbelieve; but when I’m high I know about this disbelief. And so I have a tape in which I exhort myself to take such remarks seriously. I say ‘Listen closely, you sonofabitch of the morning! This stuff is real!’

I find it more fascinating to explore thought while on cannabis and that is what I primarily use it for. Instead of saying "dude you're so high" to a far out thought, I try to explore it as far as it will go. Quite enjoyable.

[0] http://marijuana-uses.com/mr-x/

Same here. I know people who bum out with it much like many other vices. I also know many analytical and intellectual minds that enjoy it's effect for more open-ending brainstorming (architecting code for a solution, etc), then they sleep on it, wake up sober, and flesh-out the work from there. It's the balance that makes this work so well.

Whether or not you like dance music, you can’t deny the incredible explosion of creativity from the rave scene driven by a single drug.

That’s true of most people who don’t smoke up too.

Bill Hicks had a good bit about splitting your record collection into two groups: records made by people who did drugs and those who didn’t. Then decide which albums you wanted to keep. It doesn’t mean that everyone should do drugs, but it’s a good indicator that either drugs can be used to enhance creativity, or at least that highly creative people don’t seem to lose their edge on drugs.

Yeah, but most people do that anyway so it should be statistically expected (not that it's not hypocritical of them to say this).

I’ve had many programming design breakthroughs while lifted. Write ‘em down, check ‘em the next day - many remain awesome (and some are confused).

Something about the heightened ability to focus on a single thing, deeply.

As you say - it’s a deeply personal thing. I also never actually smoke anymore. Edibles FTW

One might consider that an artistic/creative revelation. Weed is definitely good for that.

"Why is this code breaking?" Not so much...

For you.

Carl Sagan touted pot's ability to help him with abstract mathematics, so YMMV.

Abstract mathematics, and finding bugs, are not terribly closely related skills.

They are in that they both require abstract thinking, working in rigid systems.

I totally disagree. Good bug fixing hinges on the ability to mentally organize multiple potential, interrelated points of failure. It's being able to have a working sense of the architecture and chain of logic without having to go back to the source too often.

The difference between abstract thinking and bug fixing is literally left vs. right brain.

Luckily, this point speaks to that:

> Something about the heightened ability to focus on a single thing, deeply.

I've found it helpful in sussing out tricky bugs that otherwise eluded me, in addition to it helping with the more creative aspects of software development.

Don't big chief on the daily home slice. Save cashing bowls for the weekend and between 5 and 8 pm and you're fine as frogs hair.

How high are you right now? LOL

They're saying: "don't use weed during the day, just smoke / eat during weekends and in the early evening, and everything will be fine."

While I understand what you mean, many here will not. Cheers!

This ^^

"Everyone I know"

Can we just ... not? Everyone I know who consumes cannabis on a regular basis is very successful, smart and thoughtful ... now what?

Jokes on you, some of the people I know who smoke regularly are very successful, smart and thoughtful, and some are morons.

This is still very anecdotal.

I have very bad ADD, and consuming low doses of 1:1 THC:CBD concentrate helps me focus a bit more.

I wouldn't go getting stoned as shit at work or anything, but, as you said, everyone reacts differently.

There's also another thing to consider when looking at "day after" effects of smoking: for many, THC blocks REM cycles.

Don't smoke late at night. It's not as bad as a hangover, but it's still something to avoid.

> Everyone I know that smokes daily (a lot of people) is less cognitive than those I know who don't smoke

Are you saying that the most "cognitive" smoker you know is less so than the least cognitive non-smoker?

Within the middle of the cognition bell curve, yes. Pattern recognition, organizational skills, general personal awareness and motivation are all higher in the non-smokers I know compared to the daily smokers.

So then actually you're just talking about the average, right? If that's the case, then I think it's a bit harder to justify that cannabis use is the cause of those symptoms and not an effect of them.

I mean excluding exceptional cases. Someone who has an IQ of 150 who starts smoking daily will still probably be more cognizant than a sober person with an IQ of 80.

My guess, anecdotally, is that the people you know who are perpetually high on cannabis are not the only people you know who are perpetually high on cannabis.

There are a lot of smokers who hate stoners, and won't mention their mj use to casual acquaintances. And it's certainly not for everybody, especially at higher doses or potency.

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