Ballmer Peak – Wikipedia
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Concept in pc programming
The Ballmer Peak is a humorous idea invented by Randall Munroe within the xkcd webcomic, joking {that a} programmer who’s appropriately intoxicated (between 0.129-0.138% BAC) will obtain a excessive degree of programming productivity; the height happens at 0.1337%, a reference to leet. The idea is loosely tied to former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer,[1][2] and is probably going a play on Balmer series of hydrogen spectral strains named for the scientist Johann Balmer.[3]
A San Francisco group, Originate, has organized a “Ballmer Peak-A-Thon”, an open bar occasion the place individuals got “5 hours to seek out the elusive Ballmer peak, and construct one of the best worst industry attainable.”[2][4]
There isn’t any scientific foundation for the Ballmer Peak, although researchers have studied adjoining matters, such because the influence of inebriation on problem solving.[5] One research recognized worse programming efficiency with growing blood alcohol content, however joked in a footnote that as “the prescribed BAC on this experiment didn’t attain the Ballmer Peak”, they didn’t technically refute the idea.[6] In addition, the Ballmer Peak has been the topic of satirical tutorial research, together with a 2024 paper introduced at SIGBOVIK, a satirical pc science convention organized by Carnegie Mellon college students,[7] which caught broader consideration within the programming neighborhood.[8] That research, which examined blood alcohol ranges of just one male topic tackling aggressive pc programming questions, discovered no proof of a sudden “peak” of programming capability however did usually discover that velocity of fixing the challenges elevated with some alcohol consumption earlier than a fast decline.[7]
By the time of Ballmer’s 2013 announcement of his retirement from Microsoft, the idea of the “Ballmer Peak” was entrenched sufficient that media joked that the precise Ballmer Peak was the ensuing leap in inventory value.[9]
- ↑ “Ballmer Peak”. xkcd. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
- 1 2 “Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer was once Bill Gates’ assistant, now he’s the 6th richest person in the world. Here are his 5 tips for success”. Fortune. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ↑ “323: Ballmer Peak – explain xkcd”. www.explainxkcd.com. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
- ↑ Taylor, Colleen (2012-05-08). “Inside The Ballmer Peak-a-thon: The Boozy Hackathon With No Biz Guys Allowed [TCTV]“. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
- ↑ “Bottoms Up: The Ballmer Peak Is Real, Study Says”. Observer. 2012-04-13. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
- ↑ Brabrand, Claus; Inie, Nanna; Tell, Paolo (2024-04-01). “Programming under the influence: On the effect of Heat, Noise, and Alcohol on novice programmers”. Journal of Systems and Software. 210 111887. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2023.111887. ISSN 0164-1212.
- 1 2 Stone, Twm; Stoddart, Jaz (2024). “The Ballmer Peak: An Empirical Search”. arXiv:2404.10002 [cs.SE].
- ↑ Chen, Raymond (2024-04-16). “In search of the Ballmer Peak, and other results from SIGBOVIK 2024”. The Old New Thing. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ↑ O’Dell, J. (2013-08-24). “This week in tech stock: Microsoft scales Ballmer Peak one last time”. VentureBeat. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
