2024/04/02 by Twm Stone, Jaz Stoddart, Stone, Twm +1 · 4 voices · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Teaching and Learning Programming #Software Engineering Research #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.10002
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.