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Comment by neveradmitmyid | Hacker News Reader

I've been a heavy, 1 oz. of Indica a week smoker for decades, while being an extremely productive lead and principal software engineer on dozens of highly visible tech products. I am part of a heavy smoking, high tech collective of startup and career research individuals from companies people use everyday. I start my day with a combination of THC and caffeine, which folds into a deep work and research focus lasting the entire day. Over time, fellow high tech heavy smokers have identified one another, forming a moderately secret heavy smokers network that support one another in non-legal places, sometimes meet at big conventions, or we realize a number of us are at an airport at the same time and all meet in the smoker's den.

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The hippie speedball makes me ultra-productive, but unfortunately employers (well, mine) are probably not cool with me being high on Zoom calls. :/

I just wanted to chime in and say that, for some people, THC+caffeine in the right settings can give you a nice hyper-focus. I wish I could use the combo more often.

Just out of curiosity, why THC + caffeine? I am a regular coffee drinker, but never smoked at the same time.

Is it the caffeine gives you focus, but the THC removes the jitters and antsy-ness that goes along with it?

These people are heavy smokers that probably developed a functional habit (they sort of need the hit to feel normal).

You won’t magically get the benefits being espoused, if that’s what you’re thinking.

Very much this. If you're looking at it from a pure productivity standpoint and want to try it out, and aren't a regular toker - don't - because you'll just get really baked. :P

Of course you're right - but drugs usually do deliver the benefits espoused (if often at a Faustian price). Your two statements are a shade oxymoronic.

Addictive habits form suddenly, but not immediately. Every drug requires a period of optional, regular, and increasing use before dependency develops. (Some, like nicotine, can have rapid dependency onset. Others take 6 or more months of intermittent use before withdrawal threatens).

This non-dependent yet regular use is usually driven by genuine (subjective) benefit to the user - euphoria or focus, amnesia or nescience, etc.

This is the essence of the word "drug": if inactive we say supplement, snake oil, homeopathic, etc.

Pharmacology _is_ somewhat magic - absurdly improbable in a way reality, and human endeavor, often is (see: organ transplants, the bioengineered mutant grass known as maize/corn).

I've always assumed it to be that the caffeine keeps the user more energetic and alert than they would be otherwise.

The key part is you can't get too high. You just need a little bit, along with some good coffee. Unless if you're a heavy smoker and then you probably already know what you're doing.

I don't think this works for everyone but THC can help me focus in small amounts. The coffee (caffeine) is just there to keep you energized and going. I will also drink lots of water along with it. For me, caffeine actually makes me less focuses and more prone to anxiety, so it's for more of an energy kick.

Further down the this thread, there's mention of making you "dumber." Yes, that can happen if you take too much. I have messed up trying this method before on a weekend and wasn't able to figure out my own code so I just relaxed for a bit and came back later.

I like to say it's akin to some sort of alchemy. Need to find the right mixture for you and environment to work in.

The caffeine gives you focus and the energy to counteract whatever lassitude comes with the cannabis, and the cannabis provides easier access to flow state and the tendency for thoughts to wander in what can often be unexpectedly productive directions.

Or so I assume, at any rate, based on knowledge of each drug's action in isolation. I had a heavy cannabis habit back ages ago, and kicking it cold was really one of the best decisions I've ever made - of all else in my recollection, the only thing comparable in terms of immediate cognitive and emotional improvement has been beginning APAP treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. Given that I'd be very wary of self-reports of the benefits of heavy cannabis use - after all, I thought for a long time it was helping me, too! - but I suppose I can see why folks who do choose to indulge might choose also to pair cannabis with coffee.

I haven't ever been high during work hours, but I have tried to program while high. I tunnel vision too hard to get things done. I find it impossible to debug or think about broad solutions. I also am under the suspicion that I'm dumber when high.

I suspect the stoner coders are the exact opposite, and would experience similar effects when sober.

Maybe. This sounds exactly like addiction to me.

Ever vaporized or tincture/small edible instead of smoke?

Yes. Though I do not smoke regularly and it has been probably a year or more since I smoked, even though it is legal in my state.

Any notable differences?

and are we talking vape pens, or vaporizing ground cannabis?

Heh, not having heard the term hippie speedball before, I would have assumed weed and nitrous (hippie crack), not caffeine.

Adding caffeine to thc only gives me a lot of anxiety and a sense of generalized dread, honestly. It leaves me unable to sit down and focus on anything, I have to get up and pace around.

Sounds more like an idea you have for a movie than reality

Wow an ounce per week is such a heavy intake, have you noticed any negative impacts for example to your lungs or teeth?

Do you prefer smoking over edibles because of the instant rush versus a slow ramp up?

Same here in terms of use, except sativa instead of indica, and I've only found one other person like me in my career.

Smoking definitely helps me reach a deep state of focus but unfortunately it's fairly brittle (cars idling nearby, other subtle things can be really distracting) and requires a long period of stage-in if I haven't worked on something for a while (I have little long-term memory for code details).

Do you also smoke tobacco or vape nicotine juice?

Maybe you know me, you can check my profile, I've been in the "in" side of like... three? or maybe four? of this super-secret techie psychedelic ultra select clubs even involving VPs of unicorns and directors of tech companies and most of the heavy indica smokers also smoke nicotine like, a lot. Weed and tobacco are a very different thing as just smoking weed, on some cultures that smoke weed heavily like Rastas that's the more common method, like in a spliff or a blunt.

If you don't vape nicotine can I out of curiosity ask about your other super-secret habits? Because in my super secret extracurricular experience in this circles multiple time per year LSD trips and occasional cocaine binges are not unusual and both LSD and cocaine probably effect glutamate receptors in ways that I theorize help with the brain fog or fatigue that for some people regular weed use causes.

Have you considered d switching to vaping? It's so much more efficient that you'd likely only use 1/2 oz, or maybe even 1/3 oz.

The efficiency, the dosage limitation and convenience is amazing, and its been a a few months when I smoked a joint. But I still find the joint to be better experience, not sure why, maybe the trace amounts of CBD.

smoking always trumps dry vape, oil, wax, and edibles. I've found joints to be the easiest but least efficient way to smoke (its hard to charge a smoker with paraphernalia for having papers if you also carry a bag of tobacco). bowls are better but have to be cleaned. bongs and bubblers are top dog but they are bulky and even harder to clean than bowls.

Sounds like a cool group, where do you meet? :-) Need the deets. Also I am a Sativa man myself, but caffeine indeed, gotta stack those chemicals.

Show your LinkedIn profile.

I can't tell whether the parent comment was written as parody or while the author was high.

Whenever I'm drunk or high, I think of myself as an extremely productive lead and principal software engineer, MMA champion and F1 pilot. /s

These exist.

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