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molul wrote:I've programmed high many times during my university years. Not for doing it fast but just for the sake of it. Honestly, I program soooo slow when I am high, and make so many mistakes. I ended up using marihuana (the rest of drugs I've tried just don't work well for programming) just for brainstorming. When I'm about to program, the more sober the better.

And the same for music: when I write songs for my band I usually am high as fuck, but in rehearsals or playing live, we just cannot afford to be stoned, because we'd sound like crap.

Yeah weed is good for brainstorming, I've noticed when i'm programming high i think of solutions to problems at least a little faster. That might be because i'm really focused on what i'm doing so i don't get distracted as easily.

With the exception of caffeine (and maybe other uppers like cocaine, can't really say) I'd say every drug has a negative impact on your programming or otherwise performance.
For programming you need to be focused. To my experience, this is not possible while under the influence of alcohol or THC. As for the creative process and THC: You might feel like you are in a creative flow, but in reality you are not. It's true that you will associate a lot more than you would usually, but at the same time it's hard to get a grip on a specific thought. The result tends to be a messy mix of mostly mediocre idea fragments without a clear structure (no surprise there).

What really works for me is this: Be creative (i.e. design) when well rested. Implement when a little (not too much) tired. Why? Because tiredness effectively blocks out your associative capabilities. This makes it easier to get into flow. However, when you're too tired, the code quality will suffer, so always inspect what you've done the next moring. Remember, this is my experience. Your's might differ. If you feel that drugs positively affect your performance, then that's ok, but in any case: Less is probably more.

I like soda over coffee because it isn't as jittery and provides me with a steady energy buzz rather than a bouncing off the walls energy high. I agree with being slightly tired, it calms my nerves and allows me to focus more.

I'm with vrld. You may think you're being brilliant, but the next day you're likely to realize otherwise.

What works for me? Be in either a very good mood, or a very VERY bad one. To achieve the former, sleep well, eat well, get other stuff out of the way. For the latter... well, I've written an entire game engine after a bad breakup. It was very therapeutic, going after bugs with intent to kill actually works.

vrld wrote:As for the creative process and THC: You might feel like you are in a creative flow, but in reality you are not.

That hit the nail on the head. Your brain's reward center is going crazy with THC in your body. It doesn't matter if the idea is good or bad, your brain is rewarding you for even thinking of it. However, when you are sober, your brain isn't rewarding you for the bad ideas most of the time. This can give you the illusion you are doing really well in your problem solving while high and not very well when sober.
Art is a different story. Often times, doing something that is normally a bad idea artistically can be what is needed to make something very good.

I sort of just confirmed that weed has a positive effect on my programming. I defined an image as "img = "img/something.png". And it took me like 3 minutes to realize what the problem was. I'm not saying weed has positive effects on programming in general, but it does work for me. But then again so does coffee. So i'm gonna get some.

Edit: I'm sober right now, Forgot to mention.

veethree wrote:I sort of just confirmed that weed has a positive effect on my programming. I defined an image as "img = "img/something.png". And it took me like 3 minutes to realize what the problem was.

Are you familiar with confirmation bias?

veethree wrote:I sort of just confirmed that weed has a positive effect on my programming. I defined an image as "img = "img/something.png". And it took me like 3 minutes to realize what the problem was. I'm not saying weed has positive effects on programming in general, but it does work for me. But then again so does coffee. So i'm gonna get some.

Edit: I'm sober right now, Forgot to mention.

Anecdotal evidence isn't a conformation, especially when it's as anecdotal as this. :p

TechnoCat wrote:

veethree wrote:I sort of just confirmed that weed has a positive effect on my programming. I defined an image as "img = "img/something.png". And it took me like 3 minutes to realize what the problem was.

Are you familiar with confirmation bias?

He is familiar with weed. That's enough. I will call nancy bowtin right away so she can send him varied strains. He can help her testing and find with his fabulous accurate method the most productive ones.

vrld wrote:With the exception of caffeine (and maybe other uppers like cocaine, can't really say) I'd say every drug has a negative impact on your programming or otherwise performance.
For programming you need to be focused. To my experience, this is not possible while under the influence of alcohol or THC. As for the creative process and THC: You might feel like you are in a creative flow, but in reality you are not. It's true that you will associate a lot more than you would usually, but at the same time it's hard to get a grip on a specific thought. The result tends to be a messy mix of mostly mediocre idea fragments without a clear structure (no surprise there).

Totally agree with this one. Well, I have one exception: sometimes I prefer to stay focused (even if it means spending half the night programming instead of sleeping), because it is harder for me to get back to yesterday's ideas and speed. And while nightly programming I prefer a chocolatte (possibly with nuts ) This worked good for me also while university exams