https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.10002
Abstract (emphasis mine):
The concept of a ‘Ballmer Peak’ was first proposed in 2007, postulating that there exists a very specific blood alcohol content which confers superhuman programming ability. More generally, there is a commonly held belief among software engineers that coding is easier and more productive after a few drinks. Using the industry standard for assessment of coding ability, we conducted a search for such a peak and more generally investigated the effect of different amounts of alcohol on performance. We conclusively refute the existence of a specific peak with large magnitude, but with p < 0.001 find that there was a significant positive effect to a low amount of alcohol - slightly less than two drinks - on programming ability.
There’s obviously an xkcd for this
The centre is .1337
p < .0001337
You have way too many zeroes.
Would you say that it’s a very significant amount of zeros?
Lol that is Fig 1. In the paper :)
The Inebriati strike again.
“Ancient Persians reportedly debated big decisions twice: once drunk and once sober.”
Knew a guy in university that looked like a young Prince Charles that would pop half a tab of LSD whenever he ran into an issue he couldn’t solve. Somehow that worked.
This was in the late 90s early 00s, well before Randall made the comic about The Ballmer Peak
I absolutely know this is case with my writing. Really helps you enter a flow state. Not to be trifled with, Mitchell and Webb did a sketch on it actually and they also went with “just under two drinks”.
Came here to say this, a glass of wine is a great help
I do it with many drinks and then send before I sober up. You just have to pray that you never see that text again.
This also works for pool. Don’t ask me how I know.
In my experience I can write more code after a few drinks. However I usually find that the code is of low quality when I check it the next day…
Really? I’ve written code so advanced while drunk that I couldn’t even understand it the next day, but it did what it was supposed to do and solved complex issues.
If you can’t understand it, is it high quality?
I have no idea! But it looked very complicated and advanced, and did what it was supposed to do. LOL
I mean maybe that just means you were bad at naming which is the hardest part! When I’m sober I spend a lot of thought on naming things, and when it gets skipped over while drunk I’m just like wtf did I write?
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I have written brilliant code while drunk that I didn’t understand the next day. I doubt I could have even solved the problem sober.
The Unity office in Bellevue used to have beer on tap in the cafeteria. Idk if it still does what with all the fuckery going on… Maybe one day I’ll actually go into the office and I can report back
If you walk around Microsoft’s office buildings, you’ll see several people’s personal offices with full bars in them.
Humblebrag
I don’t understand? It seemed like a fun and relevant tidbit to me. Also there is no bragging about working for Unity anymore the place is a disaster
I tried coding while 420 once. Could not think straight.
I have a Balmer Peak when golfing. Three beers in and i’m a scratch golfer. 4 and I’m Happy Gilmore on his first outing.
