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Comment by unethical_ban | Hacker News Reader

You're right, it's a matter of values.

Banal: Overeating/overdrinking/overconsuming, sitting around, reading reddit/HN for hours, playing video games or twitch.

Not banal: Challenging yourself to new activities or hobbies that require skill. Seeing the world, interacting with other people IRL. Learning (new topics, reading, etc). Building things. Getting out of your comfort zone.

Essentially, being passive/not learning/not engaging vs. learning/challenging oneself and trying to be more than you are.

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While I can say I have the experience of not 'growing' at times (now), I would never say that's the weed's fault. Mostly because I've felt the exact same thing before ever smoking weed (I didn't smoke until my 30s). It's depression for me, and it's pervasive.

That said I can say that having depression (and a bit of PTSD) is way more of a hell without the weed to take my mind off it. And even if it's just playing a video game for 6 hours (rimworld is my current 2nd drug) that's far more active and engaging than my typical super depressed not leaving my bed state.

I also think bettering yourself and being a success isn't a one-size-fits-all package. I have a friend who smoked so much damn weed it's a wonder they have any brains left. They learned to play league of legends 10+ hours a day sometimes while high as a kite. They're now making multiple times the money streaming on twitch than they ever would've with any job they would be qualified for. They're the happiest they've ever been, met their SO through twitch, and are living the good life all by ignoring the advice being given here.

>Not banal: Challenging yourself to new activities or hobbies that require skill. Seeing the world, interacting with other people IRL. Learning (new topics, reading, etc). Building things. Getting out of your comfort zone.

All those things feel AMAZING while high, even if the banal things feel way better than sober. Cannabis doesn't just somehow discriminate to make only unproductive activities feel better.

I personally reached the conclusion to start seriously self-learning coding while stoned out of my mind and would furiously code in my room while stoned out of my mind. Now, about seven years later, I have a good career as a developer and still get stoned silly every night.

There's nothing in cannabis that stops you from engaging in these activities, and for some the consumption of cannabis can enhance these activities that are otherwise difficult to enter for them to enter on their own. You seem to be unaware of just how many great pieces of pop culture were developed or punched up while high. There's nothing preclusive about getting high, it's time to stop blaming the drug that has widely different effects in people and start looking at the people themselves and the environment they're apart of. I'm willing to concede the clinic trials that show cannabis has a negative effect on word list memorization and digital symbol substitution tests, but it's not forcing you to do anything you were incapable of doing before, and if it you let it can open so many windows.

We really need to look at society and ask why people are looking for a way out instead of a way in, but I guess it's easier to blame weed.

Banal is a pretty negative connotation for activities that I think are pretty core to human happiness

Some of the unhappiest people I know obsess over optimizing every second to be productive

Sometimes, often, in fact, we need banality to reset ourselves, to rest and recuperate.

We're not all Elon Musk, working 90 hours a week and always starting up a new start up. Banality will ensure we don't burn out before we're 40.

Relevant note here is that Elon actually smokes it himself

@jimmaswell: "Relevant note here is that Elon actually smokes it himself"

Also Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Feynman etc. (of course that doesn't prove anything - but it helps keeping things in proportion)

Or a matter of definition? For me banal means reading a novel or playing a game. Maybe that's because the term "banal" in German means just almost the same as in English. The German "banal" just means "nothing special", "ordinary", "not ingenious".

Is sleep a banal activity?

Sleep, dreams, and mental recuperation are underrated. How many coders wake up with the solution to a bug or problem they couldn't resolve.

That's the point, one person's "banal activity" is another person's necessary re-charge.

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