Why I Quit Caffeine (as a software developer) — Transcript

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1. 0:00as a programmer i spend an ungodly
2. 0:02number of hours focusing on a computer
3. 0:03screen
4. 0:04and for most of my career i've operated
5. 0:06under the assumption that coffee or
6. 0:07caffeine was necessary to perform that
7. 0:09job at a high level and my pull of over
8. 0:1170 000 other developers over 80 percent
9. 0:14consumed some form of caffeine before
10. 0:15writing code
11. 0:16but in reality caffeine is just a
12. 0:18trade-off in fact it makes three
13. 0:19different trade-offs in your brain that
14. 0:21we'll look out later
15. 0:22i've always loved the ritual of drinking
16. 0:23coffee and i've been drinking about
17. 0:25three cups a day since i was a teenager
18. 0:26now long story short i quit drinking
19. 0:28caffeine about a year ago and it's had a
20. 0:30surprisingly positive impact on my life
21. 0:32and that's why i'm even bothering to
22. 0:33make this video
23. 0:34i'm not here to say caffeine is bad or
24. 0:35that you need to quit but you might be
25. 0:37surprised at how unnecessary caffeine
26. 0:38really is
27. 0:39if you're a developer software engineer
28. 0:41or someone else that needs to stare at a
29. 0:42computer
30. 0:43going from full-blown caffeine addict to
31. 0:45decaf is not an easy transition and
32. 0:47probably not worth it for most people
33. 0:49the reason i quit is because i was
34. 0:50dealing with anxiety that was trying to
35. 0:52ruin my life like i might be grocery
36. 0:53shopping
37. 0:54and suddenly feel like i'm going to die
38. 0:55or wake up in the middle of the night
39. 0:57and feel like i'm going to die or be
40. 0:58going for a walk outside and feel like
41. 1:00i'm going to die
42. 1:01i could have gotten on a pill for that
43. 1:02but wanted to exhaust every natural
44. 1:04remedy first i had been drinking coffee
45. 1:06for forever so really didn't think it
46. 1:07would have any impact
47. 1:08then i discovered the decaf subreddit
48. 1:10and people were talking about how
49. 1:11quitting caffeine was like a miracle
50. 1:13drug for anxiety
51. 1:14against the advice of people online i
52. 1:16quit cold turkey going from three cups a
53. 1:18day to zero
54. 1:19for the first few days i had a
55. 1:20moderately bad headache and was
56. 1:22irritable thinking about coffee all the
57. 1:23time
58. 1:24but it really wasn't that bad because i
59. 1:25was motivated to power through those
60. 1:27withdrawals
61. 1:28things didn't really get hard until
62. 1:29about day five because the headaches
63. 1:31went away and were replaced by just
64. 1:32straight up depression
65. 1:33i was super tired and it was almost
66. 1:35impossible to get any work done
67. 1:36the good thing is that this depression
68. 1:38and tiredness seemed to replace the
69. 1:40anxiety
70. 1:40but it was still too much and i ended up
71. 1:42cheating and going back to coffee i felt
72. 1:44much better but right on cue the anxiety
73. 1:46started back up with it a couple of days
74. 1:48later
75. 1:48at that point i knew i had to quit but
76. 1:50this time weaned off a little more
77. 1:52slowly with green tea
78. 1:53and half calf my mood was depressed
79. 1:55again but that really only lasted for
80. 1:56about two weeks
81. 1:57my mood recovered but my energy levels
82. 2:00not so much i was sleeping great but
83. 2:02really tired during the day
84. 2:03unmotivated and just feeling uncreated
85. 2:05but the anxiety was dialed down from 100
86. 2:08down to like 10 the low energy lasted
87. 2:10for almost three months and honestly i
88. 2:12thought that was just my life now i went
89. 2:14from a caffeinated workaholic pushing
90. 2:15out two videos a week on my youtube
91. 2:17channel to barely being able to find the
92. 2:18strength to push the keys on the
93. 2:20keyboard but then something unexpected
94. 2:22started happening within a relatively
95. 2:23short period i started feeling motivated
96. 2:25again
97. 2:25and found the energy and creativity to
98. 2:27work at levels i was working at
99. 2:29previously
100. 2:30in other words i was back to normal but
101. 2:31with a whole bunch of added benefits
102. 2:33most importantly the random out of
103. 2:35nowhere anxiety was gone but in addition
104. 2:37when i wake up in the morning i don't
105. 2:38crave coffee
106. 2:39i just feel awake and ready to start the
107. 2:41day whereas previously
108. 2:42the first order of business every
109. 2:44morning was to get some caffeine that
110. 2:46might be because i'm getting much better
111. 2:47sleep at night and in general i just
112. 2:49feel more aware of my energy levels
113. 2:50throughout the day if you follow my work
114. 2:52on fire ship you'll notice that the
115. 2:53video output is higher than it's ever
116. 2:55been
117. 2:56and i credit that productivity partially
118. 2:57to eliminating caffeine that seems like
119. 2:59a paradox based on our culture but it
120. 3:01makes total sense when you understand
121. 3:03how caffeine affects the brain now i'm
122. 3:04not a rocket surgeon so don't take this
123. 3:06as medical advice
124. 3:07but the real scientists don't even know
125. 3:08exactly how caffeine works either
126. 3:10there are three main things that
127. 3:11caffeine does to your body your neurons
128. 3:13have something called an adenosine
129. 3:15receptor
130. 3:15which accepts a molecule called
131. 3:17adenosine that's responsible for making
132. 3:19you tired
133. 3:20caffeine is an antagonist to this
134. 3:21receptor which means it binds to it
135. 3:23and blocks adenosine from being absorbed
136. 3:26naturally when you first wake up
137. 3:27your body has metabolized away adenosine
138. 3:30and you're ready to start the day
139. 3:31as the day progresses adenosine binds to
140. 3:33the a1 receptor
141. 3:34until you ultimately fall back asleep at
142. 3:36the end of the day now when you put
143. 3:37caffeine into your system
144. 3:39it binds to that receptor and that's why
145. 3:41it makes you feel awake and alert
146. 3:42eventually the caffeine is metabolized
147. 3:44and the effect wears off and it has a
148. 3:46half-life of about 3-10 hours depending
149. 3:48on the person
150. 3:48so it's not actually giving you a boost
151. 3:50of energy it's just temporarily
152. 3:52preventing you from being tired so in
153. 3:54return for a fake energy boost you get a
154. 3:56crash and likely poor
155. 3:57sleep later on another thing caffeine
156. 3:59does is delay dopamine reabsorption
157. 4:02dopamine is the neurotransmitter that
158. 4:03makes us feel good and by delaying its
159. 4:05reabsorption
160. 4:06we feel a little better than we would
161. 4:07normally when drinking caffeine and
162. 4:09that's why it's so addictive in the
163. 4:10first place you're basically just
164. 4:12treating an artificially good mood now
165. 4:13for a bad mood later
166. 4:15and you probably have no idea that your
167. 4:17bad mood is related to caffeine
168. 4:18the third thing caffeine does is raise
169. 4:20your blood pressure which is something
170. 4:22that naturally happens when you're in a
171. 4:23stressful situation
172. 4:24nobody's exactly sure why this happens
173. 4:26but the leading theory is that it leads
174. 4:28to a chain reaction of hormone
175. 4:29regulation that causes your adrenal
176. 4:31gland to release more adrenaline which
177. 4:33itself is the hormone that controls your
178. 4:35fight-or-flight response
179. 4:36the exact thing that's going haywire
180. 4:38when you have anxiety issues so the
181. 4:39bottom line here is that caffeine is not
182. 4:41magic
183. 4:42it's just a bunch of trade-offs and side
184. 4:43effects that you'd want to consider with
185. 4:45any drug or medication
186. 4:46it's not like methyl heroin but it's
187. 4:48very easy to live your life addicted to
188. 4:50it without ever really thinking about it
189. 4:51some people say it's good for your
190. 4:52health others say it's bad but all i can
191. 4:54tell you
192. 4:54is that i'm never going back