Hmm. I have a lot of friends at Google. None of them is dumb. And of course their engineers are more expert in what they do than i am. but i don’t feel they are all that much smarter than i am. I think there’s substantial overlap between “actuary smarts” and “Google software engineer smarts”. I guess the friend who retired at 30 when they went public is smarter than i am, but he’s not there anymore. I wonder to what extent they are resting on their laurels.
(And yes, i did bitch to a friend in the map division about a feature that bugged me.)
Also, John, i don’t think any of the Google software engineers i know uses hard drugs. Or much of anything in the way of recreational drugs. Like … Maybe a beer at a party, and maybe not that. I was really surprised by your claim that all the software engineers you know are regular drug users, because half my social circle is software engineers, mostly at major companies, and very few of them were much into recreational drugs.
Well, it isn’t even your word against mine. There are many documentaries on Netflix on the abuse of drugs in the tech industry, as well as elite schools (like almost 1/3 of Stanford students have used recreational drugs). And of course, I know many in tech based on where I’m located. Not to mention events like Burning Man are especially popular for this group of people.
I don’t know your friends. So I can’t speak for them. But perhaps you should ask them yourself.
Oh yes, they’d tell me if they used drugs. I mean, half of them are polyamorous, and they told me that. (And a lot of the rest are slutty gay men, and they share that, too.) I’m not especially prudish about drugs.
I actually think a high percentage of everyone uses drugs. I doubt is a lot more prevalent at Stanford than at any of the U Cals.
So we’re talking about gay people in tech? That percentage is even higher in terms of drug users.
I mean, gays in general, but surely you already know.
But yes, younger generation generally do drugs. House/Underground/EDM people generally do drugs. Gay people generally do drugs. Wall street generally does drugs. Celebrities generally do drugs.
So I’m surprised that you’re surprised that tech people do drugs. That seems like an obvious to me. especially because of how rampant Adderall and Ritalin are used in that field for their day to day work.
Oh, I think a LOT of wall street people do hard drugs.
Also, I was going to distinguish between recreational drugs and “work drugs”. People take caffeine and adderall at work because they believe it will improve their work. And most of them get their drugs legally. That’s different from taking shrooms and molly at parties.
And I’m sure there are people in high tech who enjoy recreational drugs. I just don’t think it’s more common there than in most other professions. I think doctors and wall street and celebrities and assembly line workers probably all do recreational drugs more often than high tech workers.
Drugs aren’t new. When my father was in medical school half his classmates took speed. Or so he told me. (He imbibed massive quantities of coffee. He was so addicted to caffeine that they had to give it to him in his IV after major surgery.)
Although… I polled my college classmates, and they claimed they used more drugs in college than now. Quite a lot developed problems with alcohol and are now sober, too. So maybe young people do use more drugs. My CS friends are mostly in their 30s, fwiw.
When i go to parties with doctors and bond traders i hear stories about people using drugs. Friends who did assembly line work when they were young tell me most of their coworkers were stoned on the job. When i go to parties with computer scientists i hear stories about the latest board game they are buying on Kickstarter, or who they are going on a date with next week.
I’m sure my sample set is biased, but i imagine yours is, too.
Yes this is true.
My best friend from college used to go to music festivals a lot, and rolled molly quite frequently (I was on the east coast at the time being a nerd). But those days are in the past, she’s married now and they mostly just get stoned (it’s legal here of course).
I imagine when they start a family, drugs will have become a distant past for her.
Gay people on the other hand, party like they’re in their 20s well into their 60s.
And, in some jurisdictions that’s against the law.
(Googling the person, who put a sign warning about a speed trap, getting arrested…)
Aside:
I was driving through some nowhere state, where the troopers did something very interesting: they (two trooper cars) had stopped one car on the side of the road, both with their flashing bars on. But, instead of both troopers focusing on the ticket they were giving, one of them was giving the ticket while the other one was radaring motorists. Pretty sneaky, sis. Catches all those drivers who think, “Oh, they’re too busy to catch me.”
Where I live, the law is “slow down and move over” because troopers get nervous when people go flying by them. The second may have been enforcing that.
I think I could get a ticket for driving 70 mph in a 70 mph zone if I did it in the lane next to the trooper.
