As a systems hacker, you must be prepared to do savage things, unspeakable things, to kill runaway threads with your bare hands, to write directly to network ports using telnet and an old copy of an RFC that you found in the Vatican.
Madness string 3128
Opiates are just as dangerous but for a slightly different reason. That was like being wrapped in the warmest dizziest blanket where none of your problems exist and you can ignore them forever... as long as you can get more.