Code & Smoke

I stop smoking a month now and I hope this will be forever...
Do you smoke less or more when you code?

More ... by a country mile!!

Well done - keep it up! :)

Thanks Avon :)

I stopped about a 5 weeks. Stupidly started again this week, but gonna RESTART on monday.

Its really easy to fall back into it!!!

I've recently started again, but trying to quit AGAIN.
As I don't smoke inside, I probably smoke less as I'd want to finish a section of code before I went outside.

Good on you Morali, keep going. I don't smoke but I have a friend who is always smoking and he just lays his tobacco and papers and lighter on his laptop keyboard and his laptop and table area is all covered in ash and tobacco etc and the keys are all grimy. It used to be like that when he had an Amiga years ago too (and he was a smoking teenager).

I smoke less when I code. As long as everything just works.
It's when I stumble upon some strange bug, or is not sure how to solve a problem I step out on the balcony to get a quick smoke.
Going to stop smoke soonish. Done it before and stupidly started again. And again.

It's easy to stop. The hard bit is not to start again.

Grey: I can understand how is your friend's environment...
deps: I did the same think! Always went to balcony ha!. But believe me after a month my brain works better without this poison!

I would be interested to see what Nebula has to say on the subject.

I just passed 12 years of not smoking.
Ready for the next 12 years.

And I used to smoke 20 a day.

Yup, stopping is easy.
I've done it loads of times :-)

I gave up about a year ago, still miss it after meals and down the pub :/

It's been 19 days without a smoke for me. The first week was a nightmare, but it's getting easier now. I agree with deps, hardest part is not to start again. I know, cause I've stopped smoking a lot of times.

Its rather shame to quit since going out for a smoke puts coding problems in another perspective. There have been many occasions when I have had a new idea when returning from a smoke. If only smoking was possible without the health hazards...

It is. Get one of those pipes that blows bubbles.

I bet you recent non-smokers smell a whole lot better too! Bonus.

Definitely, my dad smokes and when I leave his house after a visit (no more than a few hours), all my clothes stink like a stale ashtray.

Well done to you.

One of my co-workers quit last year, apparently chewing fennel seeds is the way to help beat the cravings, that and deep breathing.

Not at the same time of course, otherwise you could end up choking to death.

Although I suppose that would stop you smoking again...

until the cremation that is :)

I used to work 3rd shift. I was a support analyst for a foundry (IT). the whole building was a smoking building (the President smoked, so that meant that everyone could smoke in their offices). I would code til the wee morning hours and smoke 2-3 cigs per hour....

At home it was as you guys, I would step outside.. It was nice cause it gave you the time to sit back and think about what you were coding, rearrange it in your head, and come back with a fresh look.

I quit a few times. each one alsted 8-9 months... This last time I quit was about 4 months ago. Still miss the social end of it, and the way it improved productivity when coding..... Other than that I really don't want to go back to it as I remember hearing the weezing from my lungs after a while....

..well done...I think...I mean I never smoke in my life so I have no idea is it that hard to drop such thing or not..friend of mine use to be dependent on to Coca Cola (belive it or not, he even hide it from his gf/wife today)..it was damn hard to get him rid off Coke...so I bet its same for smokers..

I think the problem you have is you're justifying your negative habit it with positive outcomes. Smoking has no positive effect on coding or a social life, stop trying to rationalize bad behavior. Not saying it isn't hard to quit, but you should stop convincing yourself that smoking has a positive side. Anything you could do while smoking you can do just as well while not smoking.

I use other methods to come up with new ideas/plan code like just lying on my sofa in the office listening to trance, going outside in the garden (only when it's warm), walking to town, even um going to the loo...

I stopped smoking in the house, so if I'm coding and want a ciggie, I go outside, which is nice really as it acts as a sort of break and lets my mind rest a little.

I tend not to smoke as much programming since I've started that, the cigs are left at the back door and theres no ashtray, which used to tempt me to light one up when I didnt really need one!

The same has happened when I go out for a drink too, what with the smoking ban in the UK.

Hello.

I stopped smoking (yes, again) a month ago and finding it easier this time than previously. I've not cravings of any sort, but then I'd decided a while ago on the when and why's. It hasn't helped my coding as, at home, I've done bugger all since I finished my MSc - figure that one out!

@Dingbat: There are positive sides to smoking, you've just got to look closely for them. The most bizarre was giving someone as asthma attack a ciggy because it helped open the airwaves - I've not tested this and wouldn't advise it, but you never know, as a last resort it may save someone's life. Also, in the UK, the amount of tax we pay on cigarettes funds the NHS and it would suffer greatly without it, or people would have to pay higher tax/private health insurance to get by. Also, of course, it saves on paint if you like that shade on nicotine yellow and smoking through pregnancy makes for smaller babies making the birth easier. Ahem.

Goodbye.

But then they don't last as long before you need to replace them.

I get my best ideas there.

I smoke loads. Code, not so much these days.

I stopped smoking about 7 years ago, but now I juggle my hobbies and coding, more than a clown juggles his balls.

Do I owe you a fee for finding out what my problem is?


I think I convinced myself it had a negative side, otherwise I would still be smoking wouldn't I?


Did you ever smoke?
If the answer is no, then wth are you doing in this topic?

Regardless of what I miss from smoking, I don't miss the smoking itself which says alot there. I don't miss the lack of breath going up and down multiple flights of steps. I don't miss gasping for air after a jog. I don't miss the weezing. I don't miss going outside in the cold to get a fix...

I was out helping my borhter-n-law out last month with his garage (building a new 3 car garage). He recently quit smoking as well (about 3 months ago). We worked all through the day and even til late in the evening. The next day we noticed that our bodies hurt pretty bad. We had done work like that many times together in the past (remodelled rooms, built patios, etc) and we never hurt like this. Then we realized that before, when we had smoked, we would take little breaks at certain 'milestones' in the garages (or other) construction. We would actually take breaks for 10 min at a time rather than work the entire day straight through (no meals, nothing).... The thing is, we still had more energy to spare the next day (being able to breath is nice) however our bodies just wouldn't move because the joints hurt so much.

We got to talking about it and our other brother-n-law came over late that week (he still smokes). He would go out with my sister and smoke on the back patio, me and Bro-N-Law #1 would go out with them just for the conversation even though we didn't smoke. Even at work people go outside and smoke and bond... Yeah sure we can bond in work and all that however it just isn't the same. It seems like forced conversation when your inside trying to push conversation as opposed to outside smoking when your all stuck there due to your habbit so you just 'chew the fat' or 'shoot the shit' or whatever term you want to use.

I guess the question on why you feel my problem is worth identifying when I neither asked for you to find it nor did I say I smoked and coded currently......

Wrong and wrong:
1) It's a stimulant.
2) Ever heard of smirting?

;)

Here's a question: why did you start smoking? All of you.

Because I look 'ard.

You look 'at is what you look, pink one.

Another fact... Also an appetite suppressor.


Here's the same question again... did you ever smoke? Mr. Cower... if that IS your real name!?!

I absolutely refuse to talk to someone who thinks they know all about apples when they have never seen an apple in their life......

Exsqueeze me?

Why did I start smoking?

It was one of them things your not supposed to do when your a kid, but, being a kid, I did it anyway! :)

Same with drink too! :D

/me slaps cower silly, for changing his nick again.

Yes, was I putting out more smoke than a crematorium? No. Why? Because I decided that smoking did nothing for me. Whether or not I've smoked has nothing to do with knowing how the chemicals affect your body.
And now my name is in question?
Apples taste good and are beneficial to your health.

Bloody good question. ;)

[EDIT] I must have been a dumbass [/EDIT]

I started smoking because I thought it was cool. I now wish I'd never started.

I'm waiting for a couple of weeks though then I'm going to see the doctor about getting me prescribed Champix which is supposed to be 100 times better and more effective in helping quitting smoking than Zyban is.

You thought it was cool to have discoloured fingers and teeth, bad breath, smelly clothes and lung cancer?

Didn't know anything about that at the time. I just remembered the adverts on TV and saw all my friends smoking so I began smoking to.

:)

LOL...
But when the ciggies have finally killed you off, you end up looking stiff :P.

Never smoked. It stinks and i find it pervert to fill my lungs with something like that.

My parents smoked when I was little, so I kind of got attached to the smell. That and the sensation of freedom are the things why I started smoking. I started after I broke up with a GF I had dated for four years.

I think the freedom is an important thing about smoking. Now that I have quit smoking, I'm not giving myself a freedom of choice. I like smoking. I would love to have a smog right now. I'm just telling myself that I can't have any. I've heard about some shrink methods to help quitting. Like changing this freedom thinking through self suggestion. Moving from 'I can't smoke anymore' to 'I can smoke, but choose not to do it'.

Its funny how treacherous the human mind is when it gets used to something. Very soon after I quit, I simply forgot all the reasons why I quit and only those things that were positive about smoking buzzed in my mind. The sensation of wanting to quit smoking is totally gone. Only thing that keeps me going is that I know my mind is playing tricks on me. I also know that if I start smoking again, the next time I want to quit, its going to be even harder.

I shouldn't be thinking about this. I think I'll watch a movie now.

I don’t smoke anymore; I gave up 9, 10 years ago. I never think about it, and I will never smoke again.

I (like a fool) started smoking behind the garage with my brother when I was 7 or 8(ish), hey, we only had 3 TV channels back then (and then they were part-time). I don’t know why I smoked, I just did. I was a kid. Both my parents smoked, so obtaining the odd cigarette was always easy. I smoked through primary school, middle school and some of high school. I stopped when I was about 15 and stupidly started again when I was 18 (during the rebellious, ‘I’m as hard as hell’ years). I didn’t stop smoking until I was 25 when both I and my wife asked each other why we smoked. We didn’t know, so we both decided to quit there and then. It’s strange because I remember it like it was yesterday (although it was actually a Thursday evening). We made a pact with each other; if either of us started again, we would be letting each other down.

The first week was tough, the second not so bad, the third quite easy. Months passed, which led to years, and now a decade. I think the real, real truth to quitting is you must mentally and physically want to give up! If you can’t figure why you smoke, it’s a good step to helping you quit. Don’t keep smoking because you have convinced yourself they taste good, because we really know they taste like crap! And do you enjoy them?

I never used a patch; I just stopped and left half a pack under the bath. Out of site and out of mind, but still some subliminal security that they were there.

One thing that really helped was when someone offered me a cigarette; I never used to say, ‘no thanks, I am trying to give up’. I was more positive, ‘No thanks, I don’t smoke’. You either smoke or you don’t, there is no giving up.

Good luck!