[fokinsean]

> The end of the drinking activities don't leave me sleepy or craving bad food. I can go home and read a book or get some work done.

This is one of my biggest motivations for reducing my drinking during the week. Even having just one or two beers after work, the probability that I read or work on a side project drops close to 0.

[baron_harkonnen]

> the probability that I read or work on a side project drops close to 0.

As someone who has done quite a few major projects on personal time and reads quite a lot as well: I personally have found the attitude that I must always be working on something or "improving myself" far more dangerous than excessive drinking.

Certainly there is balance, and I obviously don't advocate giving up all personal projects in order to drink. But the fact that many people on HN, myself included, feel bad if they're not working on some side project or improving some skill is its own kind of escapism.

I drink and smoke weed a lot more now then when I was younger. I still get many projects done, and read a ton, but there is a certain value to an evening spent stoned just getting lost in a video game or listening to music. Reflecting on it now, I also find that by any objective measure the output from my personal projects is always probably a bit higher now, though I have a lot more fun.

[fokinsean]

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I have had my fair share of drunken/high video game time :)

FWIW this is a side project I _want_ to work on, I'm not trying to make money on it, purely a passion project. So I'm not feeling pressured to work on it, I'm just trying to keep the momentum going and I found that drinking will stop that momentum.

I go through waves of video games -> projects -> reading, it's always fluctuating.

[rascul]

When I'm drinking, the probability that I work on a side project is also much lower than when I'm sober. However when I do work on one, as long as I don't pass my Ballmer Peak, I work very hard on it. Sometimes I even do good work. Sometimes it's even good the next day.

I have been working on lowering my alcohol consumption, though. It's been working, slowly, over time.

[Rapzid]

This is also why I very rarely day-drink. Couple beers in afternoon and if I even stop nothing productive happens for the rest of the day. Even if something productive did happen I would get tired and have to take a nap. Now my sleep schedule is even more wrecked.

Strictly a night drinker.

[cecilpl2]

Same here. A drink at lunch and the rest of my day is pretty much shot, so it's only happening if I'm on vacation or my plan was to lie on the beach all day anyway.