  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.
