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How sober should a writer be?

https://yalereview.org/article/crosley-how-sober-should-a-writer-be
32•samclemens•1w ago

Comments

laptopdev•1h ago
Well, I know how sober a driver should be...
b_e_n_t_o_n•1h ago
Not sober at all

I write my best code a little tipsy

free_bip•1h ago
So the Ballmer peak is real?
user_7832•1h ago
I thought that he was associated more with coke?

Though both of them can combine for a very interesting experience, or so I've heard...

(Nerd snipe: cocethelyne is uniquely cardiotoxic, and is somehow even worse than cocaine. Even amphetamine salts are "healthier".)

chatmasta•1h ago
> cocethelyne is uniquely cardiotoxic, and is somehow even worse than cocaine

Cocethelyne is the result of mixing cocaine with alcohol… should I be surprised that cocaine plus another substance is worse than cocaine?

user_7832•1h ago
It can appear a bit counter intuitive because broadly alcohol is a depressant and cocaine's a stimulant.

The primary "risk" with polydrug abuse (especially uppers + downers) is that you end up taking much more than you would normally, and once the upper wears off, the downer depressed your breathing, pote being fatal.

But with coke + alcohol, even a "normal" quantity of both when combined is far worse. It's a bunch of heart signalling stuff that affects blood pressure and a few other things, in ways that really aren't good. Which is honestly pretty impressive because coke alone is an excellent way to fuck up your heart (credits, Rohin Francis/Medlife crisis, a cardiac surgeon on YouTube who posts way too less because presumably the stress of working for NHS isn't good for a doctor's health either.)

(Iirc alcohol and Tramadol are 2 things to typically never mix with other drugs; there's a matrix chart about drug interactions and these 2 are counter indicated with most other drugs. Weed, funnily and unsurprisingly, has one of the least interactions with other drugs.)

colechristensen•47m ago
Cocaethylene is a metabolite produced in the liver when both substances are present and it is itself psychoactive.

And no you shouldn't be surprised, mixing two harmful things is often worse than the sum of doing each alone and that should be the base assumption.

estimator7292•1h ago
It's an xkcd reference
user_7832•58m ago
I'm aware ;) I just have "Developers!" living rent-free in my head

Btw there are also the 6 peaks in the Balmer Series, which is another reference if anyone wants to get into it

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmer_series/)

estimator7292•1h ago
It really is
chao-•1h ago
Hmm... I do a decent job at new, exploratory library code with a glass of wine. Not business logic, not exacting data invariants, nothing I would ever ship to production, but exploring interfaces for a library? Yeah. Asking "What does this really need to do? How do I really wish that I could write the calling/collaborating code?"

I wouldn't trust logic I wrote with alcohol in my system, or any tests that I wrote with alcohol, but getting at the heart of "Why does this library need to exist? What should it actually allow?" is enhanced a tiny bit by a mildly-altered mental state.

Over time, I've decided that it is because I get chatty with wine, and designing a library interface feels like a conversation between me and future engineers who might use said library. And then I stash it away to read and reconsider while sober.

colechristensen•42m ago
A touch of alcohol turns the overthinking volume down which often leads to more productivity and better code. A not so uncommon ADHD experience. In university of course also sometimes I would do my programming drunk and the result would regularly be that it worked but the solutions would be very odd.

Standard ADHD meds often lead to playing Factorio for 17 hours in a row and forgetting to eat.

chao-•41m ago
>Standard ADHD meds often lead playing Factorio for 17 hours in a row and forgetting to eat.

Ain't that the truth.

conception•1h ago
Intoxication is basically the “temperature“ setting on a writer.
speedgoose•1h ago
If you get a watch that measures heart rate variability (HRV), you will notice that alcohol is significantly reducing it, which is associated with a lot of things you don’t wish to yourself. And it doesn’t have to be a lot of alcohol.

So how sober has a simple answer if you care about your health : fully sober.

golson_kindmind•52m ago
A perfectly valid comment, no critique.

The way I see it / choose to live my life, not that it’s the “right” way: I enjoy certain things, like wine, in moderation that may have some detrimental health effects. However, a glass of wine and a nice sunset is something that brings me a lot of joy. I’d argue that a certain degree of “ah, fuck it” is psychologically healthy which can improve overall health.

I also have a bourbon and cigar on Sunday nights, usually paired some Jazz or an old movie. Sometimes I put butter on my bread even though it’s “bad” for my arteries. Let the chips fall where they may.

colechristensen•52m ago
I've had several relatives live to quite advanced age drinking more than a person should so I'm not particularly interested in theories about how my heath demands teetotalism. Great if it works for you or you personally need to do it, not everybody does.

I have a watch that measures HRV and have seen nothing that seems a signal linked to behavior.

vasco•37m ago
> if you care about your health : fully

If you care ONLY about your health

loeg•3m ago
I don't think alcohol-lowered HRV is particularly meaningful for health outcomes.
freetime2•23m ago
I have very little desire to read a novel centered around drinking or drug use in 2025. That subject has been covered pretty extensively - and the writers who explored it have mostly either found moderation in their later years or paid a significant price.

A lot of us are drinking less, but I’m not sure we’ve really come up with a suitable replacement yet - socially speaking. I would be more interested to explore that.

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