The life of a computer programmer/coder is tough. You're not receiving much sun (lack of vitamin D), you're killing your wrists and fingers (carpal tunnel) and you're sitting in a chair most of the day, getting flabby.
This is why some programmers and others in the tech industry find relief in the often-contentious realm of medical marijuana. Whether you're for it or against it, there's no doubt that pot helps (in most cases) to calm one's nerves, feel some degree of relaxation in muscles, joints and bones as well as inhibiting all-consuming insomnia.
We recently discussed the fact that the folks in the tech mecca that is Silicon Valley are clearly getting their fair share of medical (or otherwise) marijuana.
Despite the fact that the many stoner workers in Silicon Valley aren't officially allowed to get stoned while on campus, it's rather obvious that coders are out there working under the influence. Especially when it comes to working those late night deadlines when no one's really around to notice the smell.
Blogger Alex Medearis has been nice enough to break down exactly how being a software developer/programmer can break you down, in a recent posting. There you are, hunched over your desk, back and shoulders in pain along with your neck, fingers and God knows what else.
"The evidence is overwhelming that sitting this way is really bad for you," Medearis points out.
Medearis directs our attention to a Men's Health report that shows the direct problems that can result from sitting in a chair at one's computer all day (as do most programmers):
- Headaches and jaw pain
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Beer gut [whoops!]
- Poor performance at work [you're tired and in pain]
- Lower self-confidence [you're fat and pale and napping after work instead of getting exercise]
Medearis goes on to talk about how her hip flexor muscles are contracted (read: tension) from sitting in her worker-bee position all day.
Now, let's see how medical marijuana can help with some if not all of these problems.
"You experience a great deal of euphoria and time slows down," Tech Noir's Chaz Carlson says of the experience of programming under the influence of marijuana. "Things become more enjoyable; music sounds better, food tastes better, and sex is amazingly better. Like I said previously, you are able to focus on details you might not notice before, your brain connects ideas that it might not otherwise, and you can get fully immersed in something."
This does make a good point for many of the problems discussed by Medearis and Men's Health (headache, self-confidence, poor work performance and muscle tension).
Carlson goes on to suggest that whereas the Indica branch of marijuana can make one tired and "couch-locked," a Sativa grants the same breed of euphoria without sluggishness.
"It can be a great de-stressor," an anonymous user of Quora says. "This means you calm down a lot, so if you're naturally fussy about your code, you'll be more mellow about it, which can help at least an initial architecture/code outline flow really easily."
This user continues that whereas marijuana might help programmers to focus as much as, say, prescription drugs such as Adderall or Ritalin, it won't result in the same "heart beating out of your chest" symptoms of those speed-infused pharms.
"Again, it's probably related to chemical stress reduction and letting go of/ignoring distractions, but it's just easier to code well when one is optimistic," the anonymous Quora commenter says. "The best programmers tend to not have that 'get stuck and beat self up' [confidence! performance!] gene or whatever, but for a moderate programmer, especially one in a room full of guys who seem to never be flustered and always have the answer? Lady Weed, she can help with that."
Corpus Callosum suggests that this all depends on the person (of course) — being that we all have different tolerances and brain chemistry — and on the kind programming one is doing:
"[I]n a normal state of mind, lets [sic] say you have 1000 units of brain processing power per second. [N]ormally you could put 200 units to 5 different things. [T]hereby handling 5 things simultaneously, but on a more superficial level.
"[P]ot can let you focus 950 units onto whatever you are doing or thinking about. [S]o you can do that one thing better. [B]ut at the expense of everything else. [T]hats [sic] why its [sic] a very bad thing in a work environment where you're interacting with other people."
"We are all (the vast majority of us, anyway) drug users," KLD Labs Inc. Software Developer/Chief Architect Mike Smith says. "Some of us abuse drugs, but that distinction has nothing to do with which drugs are being used; merely whether the user retains control, rather than relinquishing it."
This statement was in response to another commenter at Cunningham & Cunningham whose "personal opinion" is that "programmers aren't any more or less inclined to use drugs than other professions with well-educated well-paid people who are occasionally subjected to lots of stress."
There are those who feel the polar opposite, of course.
"Don't be stupid," Senior Technical Integration Consultant Jeff Griggs says. "Programming is an intense thinking creative activity. Drugs mess up your brain. I exercise and get plenty of sleep, to be 'on top of the mental game' when I'm in it. I'd have to be crazy to do drugs."
"I have been programming commercial software professionally for 15 years and at various times during that period, I have smoked pot," "John" comments on Cunningham & Cunningham's page. "If I luck into a bag, I'll smoke it most every day until it is gone. But, I don't smoke and work at the same time. I have consistently been the highest paid (as in 'most well paid') programmer in the few companies for which I have worked (4 in 15 years, I can keep a job)."
Hacker News seems to agree with John and others who feel one's programming can be ameliorated by a bit of THC in the system.
"I find it specially positive in my work, as an aid to better concentration and also greater creativity," HN says.
HN commenter Daniel B. Markham feels weed should be legalized but, personally, doesn't exactly feel safe "lighting things on fire and sticking them near [my] head to breathe."
"If we were passing around a joint and before I had to hit it again, I had to multiply two 3-digit numbers together and translate a a paragraph into spanish, I could. But smoking makes you less likely to approach a problem like that. It allows you to take in perspectives other than your own."
"While smoking, I have uncovered repressed memories of childhood, resolved interpersonal conflicts, and redesigned interfaces," HN commenter Amohr says. "I've always felt that weed helps one reconcile disparate concepts. When you take off all your different hats and just look at the problem with a more basic human perspective, without the little compartments into which we organize all our issues."
"Of course, some people can achieve this level of perspective without drugs, more power to them. Similarly, some people react differently to marijuana - bummer for them. I smoke regularly, but not when I need to code - it's not that I can't code, it's just horrendously unappealing when high."
"The bottom line is just knowing what helps you accomplish what and when to take part. I speak significantly better [F]rench with a little booze in me and I design better logos after a few hits. Some people are better designers and [F]rench speakers than me without ever having tried either."
Taking the scientific approach, we go to Nature's own study with the satisfyingly scholastic title "Effects of Acute Smoked Marijuana on Complex Cognitive Performance."
And what did they find? "These data demonstrate that acute marijuana smoking produced minimal effects on complex cognitive task performance in experienced marijuana users."
Basically, weed does little to nothing to affect your programming one way or the other. At least in this test.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you before your next toke.
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Read more: Silicon Valley Really Loves Its Pot (Video)
