How does Cannabis affect your computer skills ?

[Looney]

There has literally been dozens of research done on this... and they all have conclusively shown that marijuana decreases mental and motor skills (i'm not going to link you to anything... but if you really are interested, it's not hard to find these studies).

But they said that if you learn something while stoned, and you were to then perform the same task sober or stoned, you would actually perform better if you were stoned when reperforming the task. Just because being stone will trigger some cues that will help you recall the things you were learning when stoned... similar to how they said you should always sit in the same location in the classroom even during your tests... you'll do better on the test because there would be cues around the room that will remind you of some stuff doing your lectures.

But overall, marijuana DOES decrease performance. Now, you may be a genius even though you're stoned all the time... your IQ may be 130... but how do you know if being sober your IQ wouldn't be 140?

Anyways, i'm not against drugs, especially soft drugs like marijuana. Drinking also decreases performance, yet that's legal. Smoking decreases the lifespan, and the lifespan of those around you, yet those are legal.

 

[vi edit]

I'd say that you would be less productive if you step away. It won't be because of the pot though, it will be because of the ABSENCE of pot.

Whenever you break a habit, whether it be nail biting, pot smoking, or drinking, you will suffer for a while because your routine has changed. The pot itself hasn't helped you, it's just the comfortable lifestyle that you have settled into.

Disturbing that lifestyle WILL adversely affect your functioning for a while. Luckily for you, pot is more or less non physically addictive. You won't have hardly any physical withdrawl symptoms. But, you still will have to overcome the psychological addiction(read LIFESTYLE) that you have grown accustomed to.

 

[polm]

I do apologize for the grammatical errors. I am hard at work and trying to squeeze a little 'me time' in makes things difficult. I compromise the spelling in order to deliver my posts quickly, thus allowing me to return to my current duties (designing a new Geotel topology for a new telecom region).

 

[polm]

vi_edit: It has been a long time since I haven't been habitually using marijuana. It definitely would be an uncomfortable transision. I only hope the final outcome would be positive. I guess the only thing I can do is try. I just wish I could find some actual real-life experiences in this matter. Who know how long the withdrawl effects would last. It might be months before I was at a point were I could really evaluate my performance, without having to adjust for the downgrade associated with the withdrawls.

 

[pulse8]

<< It's obviously killed the brain cell that tells you that a lot is two words.

Just because he made a gramatical error in his post doesn't mean he has lost any brain cells. Instead of criticizing this man for his habit, why not just leave the thread alone and let the people who this thread was meant for answer the question? >>



Calm down, man! It was a freaking joke! Did you not notice the smile afterward? Sheesh...are we a little paranoid after smoking some ganja???

LOOK! Another joke! Wow! Calm down and don't take things so personal, especially when they aren't directed towards you.

 

[AmazonRasta]

Paranoid, now why would I be paranoid? Relaxed maybe, not paranoid .

 

[vi edit]

polm, books could be written on the addiction recovery process and no one could still make an accurate prediction as to how long one would take to break the chains of addiction.

I honestly believe that some people naturally have more addictive personalties than others. Some people just seem to get mentally addicted to things and have a harder time letting go. It's these people that have never can seem to kick smoking, they always have to have a pepsi or coffee to get them in the going, they have to have a candy bar when they get &quot;a sweet tooth&quot;. They more or less cannot keep their cravings in check and just don't have the will power to stay away from what ever it is they are addicted to.

It really just depends on you. If you are one of those people who can cut something cold turkey and just walk away from it without ever touching it again, then you should be fine.

But, if you find yourself giving in to your desires, then you may have a slow, choppy, and painful road to ridding your self of &quot;the bud&quot;.


-- about weed &quot;enhancing&quot; your work -- possibly it's that weed was just an easy way to make yourself to relax. You may have been exceeding your coworkers because they were so stressed out, that they were making themselves unproductive. The weed was an easy way to relax yourself and allow you to concentrate more on work, and less on the tedious crap that tends to make co-workers stress levels sky rocket.

You may want to try and find alternative ways of getting yourself relaxed and maintaining that relaxation throughout the day. It could be through meditation at certain times, pre-work exercising, a small nap at lunch time, ect. ect. ect.

Nobody on this board but you can judge how long it will take you to break the cycle. It's just some equation of your desire to kick it and your other desire to keep it.

 

[AmazonRasta]

Bah. Missed somebody else's edit.

 

[Ultima200]

Althogh there have been studies saying the marijuana &quot;decrease producticity and IQ&quot; it really means sh\t to most people.

The thing I dont get is why are you asking this question here to a bunch of people who dont even use it? My suggestion go to either the yahooka.com forums or the overgrow.com forums and ask the question. You will see that it is different for everyone. personally for me, when I get high, i like to just do what I want, and I dont like having to concentrate on anything, therefore smoking before I go to do computer work would not be good for me.


I know people that smoke before work and are fine, and althoug I feel this is a waste of herb, they seem to enjoy it.

Now if you go to work everyday smoked up for a period of time, you WILL build a psychological dependence. Once you decide not to smoke before work, you will feel that you arent as productive, but it is really all in your mind.

My advice to you is to blaze after work, that way you can enjoy it much much more, and you will have somethign to look forward to at the end of the day.

Also, you most definately have a huge tolerance built up, so I would advise you to quit for at least 2 full weeks. You will be amazed how little it will take to get you baked after doing this. Not only that, you will appreciate it so much more and your high will last longer.

 

[HansHurt]

You smoked it for 7 years. I have smoked it for almost twice that, on a daily basis, I quit cold turkey, with no problems whatsoever, except that I did not know what to do w/ myself in those moments where I would normally just veg out. I smoked it before and during work on a regular basis, and was also hailed as an excellent worker. As a matter of fact I have gone to work on LSD quite a few times, in one case I was on my 3rd or 4th day of it, and woke up to about 10 hits of it, since you have to double doses i.e day 1. 1-2 day 2. 2-4 day 3. 4-8 etc....anyways, needless to say that was an experience.


The thing is this all catches up w/ you, there is no way I could do the same thing w/o doing the chicken on the floor...I would end up in the E.R. now. Also, I believe that it does in fact have long lasting effects, some of which are subtle.....loss of ambition, normal social interaction can be a little &quot;off&quot; (i.e becoming a little introverted), concentration problems and the &quot;escapism&quot; effect which you become accustomed to.

The psychology behind using these types of drugs is a little strange, and vary from person to person. In my experience, I used it to sedate myself...to slow down my thought process's, and equally, my ambition that could not be fullfilled due to constraints imposed by todays society (that was the theory anyway )...it truly was an escape, and it worked...so it seemed. Unfortunately in doing this, you are removing or alienating yourself from &quot;normal&quot; society somewhat. This of course puts you at a disadvantage, when you do come to the inevitable realization that you have to conform. Even after you come to this realization, you can get caught up in the delusion that you can function normally...this is a farce in my opinion (in my case anyway)....I found that a large reason why I was working, was to maintain my &quot;harmless habit&quot;...I enjoyed being at work , but enjoyed going home to my stash much more. I also believe that deep down you know that it is damaging...thats the tricky part... there is the guilt associated w/ it, the stigma imposed by people (more importantly the stigma placed upon yourself), the feeling that you have indeed failed to live up to your expectations...this all contributes to the vicious cycle of self-abuse and perpetuation of the habit. This is all exasperated w/ the usual nagging questions that we all face....&quot;why am I here&quot;, &quot;what's the point, to it all&quot;, or other internal staments such as &quot; everything is so messed up anyway, what does it matter&quot; and so on........and on........anyway, I am getting lost here, and running on a bit w/o any real point (another lasting effect)

Again I can only accurately talk about my experiences,and this is just a slice of a complicated issue.... but I bet they run parralell to many others experiences. (in essence anyway).


To sum up ...if I could do it all over again, I would NOT use drugs, simply because it does, in my opinion, limit your overall ability to maximize your potential. I believe I could have done much better in my life if I hadn't spent so much time and money concentrating on fullfilling this vice (although I cannot say for sure). I guarentee you that I am not as smart or wise as I was, which contradicts the normal evolutional process..I absolutely attribute this to excessive drug usage over the last 14 years.

[EDIT] Let me explain that last part a little better...it's not that I have lost knowledge, it's my apllication or execution of it that is flawed...less precise or accurate.

 

[chainbolt]

don't need canabis, Im high on crack, :|:Q:disgust::frown:

 

[Scabilian]

i haven't 'smoked up' since my high school daze

i find that being half drunk helps my CS skills..

 

[yobarman]

<< How does Cannabis affect your computer skills ? >>



Well from my experiences...pot makes me really tired and sometimes puts me on my ass. I dobut I could ever smoke before work because I'd be asleep the whole time. I know a lot of very intelligent people who smoke up a lot. It happens a lot at my school, rich white kids at a nice school, so eventually you're going to come across a couple of brilliant people who smoke pot.

It's different for everyone. Some people perform better, some people get relaxed. Others get so relaxed that they fall on their ass 25 minutes later

 

[Netopia]

Sounds like HansHurt and I have a LOT in common.

I come from a VERY educated family. My father is currently considered the &quot;Einstein of Linguistics&quot; and works with about 80 or so languages. He just retired from the NSA at 75 years old and they were BEGGING him not to quit. Most of my siblings have multiple degrees.

I wanted to be a Doctor... had my life mapped out to age 27 at which time I hoped to be able to start my own practice. I was an honor roll student and NEVER studied.... I was like a sponge... everything just sort of soaked in without any effort. At 13 I started smoking pot. I LOVED IT! By 15, I was a student who occasionally would bring home a &quot;B&quot;... and was looking for pot whenever I could find it. By 17 I was smoking constantly and halfway through my senior year of high school I dropped out. School wasn't important to me anymore, I decided that what I would love to do was grow pot as a lifetime carreer.

I joined the ARMY a few months later, after I decided I needed to &quot;get it together&quot;. That was a mistake. There were WAY more drugs in the military at that time than on the street. For the next four years I smoked hash almost non-stop. Sometimes I'd get so stoned that I'd hide my chunk of hash in my locker, go to the bathroom, and when I'd come back I'd have to search everywhere 'cuz I couldn't remember where I'd left it! But I functioned just fine most of the time, continually stoned, and got out of the Army in four years having already been a Sergeant for one year, which was not an easy task.

After I got back to the states, I started in on sinsamilla. By the time I was out of the service 18 months, I was spending more on pot than on rent... but hey, I wasn't hurting anyone and any work I did, I was always praised for and moved on up. Believe it or not, it was a trip on 4 HUGE mushrooms (caps &amp; stems both) that ended up making me see how much I was wasting my life and how I needed to turn to God and get turned around. It took me about 6 months of trying and failing to quit pot. I'd been smoking it steadily on a daily basis for over 8 years and for about 10 years since I'd started.

It was hard. Just like HansHurt said, the hardest part was finding something to do with my time. When I'd get high, I wouldn't feel like playing with my C-64, but just get lethargic and want to chill... wish they had had todays computers back then... but not getting high meant that the things I did when I was high weren't as interesting anymore.... plus, I missed the &quot;doing&quot; of it... the cleaning my pot... rolling joints or setting up my bong... had my little collection of pipes and bongs and personal pocket one hitters.... it was almost a hobby!

I succeeded in stopping, but I have had a few single high relapses over the years... the last of which was about 6 years back. I felt sooooo bad that time that I don't think I'll ever have the desire to do it again. But in stopping, I discovered something... I had been fooling myself all along. I wasn't the same me. I could still learn, but it required studying and it wasn't effortless any more. I could muster enthusiasm, but not at the same level. I have no idea how many points my IQ dropped, but I deeply regret what I did to myself. The other thing, was that it was about a YEAR before I REALLY started to notice significant changes in me.... changes deeper than whether I was just high or not... changes on a level of psyche. You see, I spent most of my teen years stoned. I didn't know it, but I had retarded necessary emotional and social development INTERNALLLY. Externally, no one could tell... but I could feel my thoughts and emoitions and feelings changing INSIDE... developing into less &quot;me-centric&quot;.

When I wanted to get high... it was all about me. I'd broken up with plenty of girlfriends because they wanted me to quit. HELL NO... THIS IS ME, IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, TAKE A HIKE! Now I look back and realize how warped that was. Smoking pot is NOT me, it was something I did. Smoking pot wasn't worth destroying relationships, but I put it on an alter above many other things in life and found it worthy of my focus.

I know this post has rambled. I'm late for work and hurrying... I just wanted to respond.

If you think you could quit for one year. Try it. Save the money and reward yourself. It's just dope, if you decide after a year that you like it, you can always go back and not worry about its feelings being hurt. If, on the other hand, not smoking is too hard, you should take a serious look at yourself and be ready to admit you have a problem... I really wish I had a LOT sooner.

Good Luck,

Joe

 

[FrancesBeansRevenge]

It is a PROVEN SCIENTIFIC FACT that a few bowls increases your aim in CS!

Okay maybe not but it sure makes it so much more fun

 

[HansHurt]

Nice post Netopia.

 

[Netopia]

Thank you, yours too... but I bet BOTH of us wish we didn't have the experience that it took to write them.

Joe

 

[yellowperil]

I think marijuana is a more benign substance than tobacco or alcohol. Yes, there are carcinogens from the smoke and tar, but as long as you don't do it too often and use a water bong, I don't really seeing it affecting performance. At least nowhere near the impairment you get with alcohol, or the physical addiction of cigarettes. Just play it in moderation.

 

[dafatha00]

i smoke on a normal basis and i find i can't do anything at all...i'm either laughing at every little thing or just can't concentrate in general. my productivity definitely decreases.