I think that his point was that you wouldn't walk around the office pointing at everyone with a cup of coffee and saying "that crosses the line".
In reply to your original comment - for work you don't care about, I'd agree with you, but plenty of people who do stuff like this, particularly I assume when it comes to HN readers, really do care about their work. For example there's plenty of times I'll work more hours than I technically have to because I want to, and so if I were to take drugs to help that, it wouldn't neccesarily be a case of "get a new job". Incidentally I do smoke, because I enjoy it more than I care about the health risks right now.
In reply to your original comment - for work you don't care about, I'd agree with you, but plenty of people who do stuff like this, particularly I assume when it comes to HN readers, really do care about their work. For example there's plenty of times I'll work more hours than I technically have to because I want to, and so if I were to take drugs to help that, it wouldn't neccesarily be a case of "get a new job". Incidentally I do smoke, because I enjoy it more than I care about the health risks right now.