I can't tell if this is snark or serious, so I'm going to reply as if it's serious.
I was a music composition major (and a religion minor, aka traditionally seen as unemployable). My focus in college was mostly romantic and neo-romantic choral and piano + voice works. I never pursued it as a career, and a few years after college, I fell into (and in love with) programming. The very, very first thing I noticed as I was learning various paradigms was the unbelievable similarity between writing code and composition. I'm not going to belabour that point because I feel that it's been expounded upon enough (code is a creative art, etc.), but what astounded me further was then having code discussions with music colleagues of mine that have minimal exposure to any sort of programming / computer skills whatsoever, and having them keep up and contribute as if it were just another division of the arts.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that intelligent people with creative, inquisitive minds can totally hold their own in conversations about topics they may not have a background in because when it comes down to it, there's a whole lot of similarity between art and code. Don't write folks off just because of their collegiate foci.
Yes, yes, yes a thousand times to stop drinking alcohol. My moods leveled out substantially once I stopped drinking. Granted, I have what is traditionally known as a problem with alcohol so YMMV, but from personal experience it's been the best decision I've made by far. (I could go on for paragraphs about alcohol and programming culture, but I'll shelve the off topic proselytizing for later.)
More important than anything else, if you're having depression issues, it's important to remember that you can always change your story. You're not locked into anything (well, most things) in your life. True, some things are harder to shed than others, but if you're depressed enough where it affects you on a monumental, daily basis, just remember you can change it. Stop engaging in activities that make you feel like shit. Cut acquaintances (even family) out of your life that bring you down. Drop out of life for awhile if you need to - the people who truly care about you will understand. Anything is ultimately better than the alternatives of a quick demise or a bleak existence, both for you (primarily) and the people around you.
It gets better is an overused cliche, but it holds some merit. You can make it better.
(on a side note, time release caffeine sounds incredible.)
Not only trust, but honesty. It's a lot harder (I would wager almost impossible!) to operate in a flat organization without everyone being willing to both be honest and receive honest criticism.
The company I work for is about 30 folks strong and there are, for all intents and purposes, only two levels of hierarchy. It could probably sustain being completely flat, but I'd fear that it'd fall apart relatively swiftly due to people being unwilling to both bring others to task and be brought to task themselves.
Plus, there's something to be said for decision by committee severely obfuscating progress if consensus can't be easily reached.
I've never understood the argument against complex, unique passwords when there are numerous robust, free, and cross platform tools for pw management. It's far easier to manage one database of generated credentials than to remember even a handful of sets of simple auths.