You wouldn't happen to be Indian by any chance?

Negative. Incorrect hemisphere, but that is irrelevant. I'm looking for a global perspective on this, to see whether it's a local phenomenon or not.

definitely local.

I've worked in UK/I, Russia, East Europe and Israel, and such an assumption is never even made

I was a coder for over 20 years and know no one who smoked marijuana. Tobacco yes, marijuana no. And it makes sense to me -- can't program when stoned or intoxicated.

this is a bizarre correlation that you've made, that most programmers are "stoners".

i don't really know many programmers who are "stoners". most of them are intellectual types (or even downright "nerds") who aren't especially prone to partying.

granted *some* of them can be grouped in what you would classify as the "stoner culture", but those tend to be more of the unprofessional, undereducated, overgrown skript kiddies --- you know, the self-taught, PHP webpage jockeys who spend more time playing MMORPGs than producing code.

now, I'll admit: maybe my opinion is colored by my area of the country. I'm in Seattle, where two things may be quite different from your area of the US Midwest.

(1) we have a huge professional programming community (think: The Software Giant in Redmond), most of whom are highly educated and motivated.

(2) we also have a culture that doesn't much give a damn about who smokes a little pot in their private time. Marijuana use has been all but decriminalized here, so most people don't get their drawers all in a bunch about it.

Disclaimer: I don't smoke pot, and I don't much care whether anyone else does or doesn't.


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Actually I'm surprised WA's flag doesn't have a pot leaf on it.

You can't walk around the streets of a small town and not be enveloped by the smell of some potent weed.
Can't go to a gas station or convenient stores in some areas/time of year, can't be be near the mouth of college kids, can't go to the library entrance(across the street from a police station), all without being enveloped.

Oh yeah, it's also our biggest cash crop: http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/19226814.html

Yeah, and Hempfest is coming up soon. I wonder if Seattle's former Chief of Police, Norm Stamper, will be there speaking on behalf of marijuana legalization/reform.... again.

I'm my school, I've never seen a programmer smoke (there is a large number of smokers in our school). We'll, I guess if you count one of the "programmers" in CS class who can't make a simple prime number tester after 5 months without copying someone elses code, than I know about 3 "programmers" who smoke. They all failed with the other half the class.

i made a mistake. i said the OP who suggested that programmers were stoners was from the u.s. midwest... that's not correct. Menster is apparently from Australia.

so let me make my own overly gross generalization:

the reason you think all programmers are "stoners", Menster, is because you're from Australia. and as the rest of the world knows, there's no significant tech development coming out of Australia.

Now i can't say if that's the cause or the effect of you guys being a bunch of potheads, but there must be some connection.