The Ballmer Peak: An Empirical Search

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Stone, Twm, Stoddart, Jaz
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Stone, Twm
Stoddart, Jaz
author_facet Stone, Twm
Stoddart, Jaz
contents 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.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_10002
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Ballmer Peak: An Empirical Search
Stone, Twm
Stoddart, Jaz
Software Engineering
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.
title The Ballmer Peak: An Empirical Search
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.10002