Ask HN: Do you drunk code?

6 points by kamphey ↗ HN
Can you write code while drunk? Do you have a drink or two while coding or looking over code or doing research at the end of the night?

Know anyone who does?

13 comments

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I had a co-worker who coded his own CMS for a relatively successful web agency (it was the pre-wordpress era). And he coded part of this CMS on paper at a party. Must have been one crazy party :)
I don't enjoy solitary activities when I drink so no. That being said, I do comment on HN under the influence sometimes.
it depends, for some critical line of code you can't make mistakes (for example if you are writing something involved with security , or in some worse case if you are programming an airplane consolle). So my point is: you can be drunk while coding but you have to be 100% sober while planning your tests for that code. Accordingly to a lot of studies alchool (also drugs) helps our brain to "think different" so while you are drunk you could find a solution for a problem you were stuck in just because while you are drunk your brain discovers different patterns. However i don't have much experience about this ... i've coded something while i was mildly drunk and i saw no difference.
This question comes up every 3 weeks periodically. What a bunch of alcoholics!
It Slows me down. I've had a few drinks, but don't recommend it.
There are a lot of fun things you could do drunk. Coding is not one of them.
For me, coding is more fun getting in the zone, doing it for a few hours at a time... so nyet.
I have read that sleep deprivation is as bad as getting drunk in terms of the number of IQ points' hit taken, so I would argue that many folks in the industry are effectively coding drunk :-)
I am part of the Friday Club at work, basically we have about 3/4 pints every Friday lunch time. My output on a Friday afternoon is close to zero, I cannot concentrate and really don't recommend it!
Part of why I quit drinking is so I have more time to study programming effectively. There's no way I can do that buzzed.
I drunk code often enough. One thing I've learned is to make a backup of whatever I'm working on and put it somewhere out of easy reach (be it on a remote server, or a flash drive that is removed from the machine.) You will inevitably break something, but I typically come up with more gold than overall damage.
Does 8 cups of coffee should count as "under the influence"?