ballmer peak
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.39 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A fictional level of drunkenness (originally stated to correspond with a BAC of 0.129–0.138%) said to confer one with superhuman programming ability.
Humorous
Example Sentences
- "I think he's researching drug use and its relation with Ballmer's Peak."
- "If the programmers writing autonomous vehicle software are in the Ballmer peak, will they get charged with DWI?"
- "At a talk he later gave on wu-wei at Google, Slingerland made much the same point about intoxication. During the Q&A, someone in the audience told him about the Ballmer Peak—the notion, named after the former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, that alcohol can affect programming ability. Drink a certain amount, and it gets better. Drink too much, and it goes to hell. Some programmers have been rumored to hook themselves up to alcohol-filled IV drips in hopes of hovering at the curve's apex for an extended time."