this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
436 points (99.1% liked)

Science Memes

11243 readers
3101 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

(page 2) 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I wonder if there's a comparable effect for machining

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›