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.
I once worked in IT for an MSP that kept beer on tap in the office for this exact reason. Techs were encouraged to have a beer or two when stumped on an issue. It worked surprisingly well.
This did result in a few years of struggling with alcohol issues tho.
#1544 - I can no longer code without drinking at least 3 glasses of beer, am I becoming an alcoholic? - [Duplicate] [Won’t fix]
Alcohol is considered a performance-enhancing drug in darts.
For programming, it works the same way as playing music: your focus narrows. Your brain can’t do other stuff, either because it’s busy moving your neck in time with Meshuggah, or because it’s been lightly poisoned by delicious ethanol.
There’s obviously an xkcd for this
The concept of a ‘Ballmer Peak’ was first proposed in 2007
where do you thnk it was proposed?
Lol that is Fig 1. In the paper :)
Posted Oct. 1 2007.
“first proposed in 2007”
I wonder if Randall has seen this?
I’d argue that this is for the XKCD, not the other way around.
The centre is .1337
p < .0001337
You have way too many zeroes.
Would you say that it’s a very significant amount of zeros?
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
Microdosing LSD is a common thing nowadays in the tech world. It definitely increases your creativity and mental energy, so it makes sense. Your friend was probably ahead of the curve. I’m not sure if the idea was as popular back then.
The rest of use were tending towards macro dosing. He may have known about it, but he didn’t really talk about it that much. Certainly wasn’t encouraging other to try it.
Maybe his dose wasn’t small enough to be considered micro. I’d wager half a tab would give a light trip instead of a full
I dunno. I never took less than 2 tabs even my first time, cause less than that didn’t seem to do anything as far as visuals went. Just made me feel twitchy
I’ve found that the best way to utilize alcohol when programming is to code sober and comment drunk. It’s a wonderful way to make commenting both fun to write and to read later.
I have tried coding under the influence, but I can’t do it. Even small amounts of alcohol makes it really hard to do anything complex. But if it works for you, good on ya.
I did some of my best problem solving on Vicodin.
Two beers and I’m fully functional.
Also works for customer service. Have a ridiculously minor issue that really doesn’t matter but still irks a small part of you and you’re too much of a wimp to speak up about? Check your sent folder in the morning after a night of drinking.
Protip: support@company.com.
The idea that drinking helps has been around a lot longer than 2007. Since basically the discovery of alcohol. Yes, it can help with nerves a little bit, but none of your skills are improved, and most are impaired.
Maybe it depends upon the person.
I have difficulty programming properly while listening to music so maybe I’d find it hard to do so with alcohol too.In my case, it’s probably because I tend to keep as much of the context as possible into my current memory, which gets reduced if I’m distracted by sounds (whether music or noise). The ADHD Relief music tracks tend to work well though, since they aren’t very distracting and help get rid of other peoples’ noise.
The Inebriati strike again.
This also works for pool. Don’t ask me how I know.
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”.
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.
Write drunk, edit sober.
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.
“Ancient Persians reportedly debated big decisions twice: once drunk and once sober.”
Modern Persians still do so too, just a little bit illegally
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Apparently Mr. Ballmer is a real programmer at Microsoft. Even better, he was still working at Microsoft in 2007 when the comic came out, but retired a few years later.
He was the CEO at the time, and I don’t know that he was ever involved with writing any code.
But he loved those DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS!
I think this may be true for many things.
I’m a better dirt bike rider after a couple of beers. The beer relaxes you and your body just does what it needs to do, instead of tensing up with fear.
You sound like a donorcycle rider. One who is casual about potentially traumatising and/or injuring others.
I’m talking about riding in the dirt.
I tried coding while 420 once. Could not think straight.
I can imagine being that old would make it difficult to think straight, tbh. What’s your secret?
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