Every Friday I am at ... Balmer Peak - is there truth for him?
Many people know the comic relationship between the ability to program and the amount of alcohol consumed. According to the theory, there is a certain dose that opens up superhuman coding abilities (according to empirical data - about 2 bottles of beer). However, have you wondered what is the share of joke in this joke? It is a little alkoteorii and alcoholic practitioners with blackjack and shl ... numbers and graphs at the bottom of the glass under the cut.
In my short article I will not tell you that alcohol is salvation, or that it is universal evil. Much has been written about the positive or negative effects of ethanol on the body. Including there are certain studies showing that he can have a positive effect on mental abilities, if you know the measure.
From far away from programming, low / moderate alcohol consumption slows down cognitive decline and reduces susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease.
We are getting closer. The overall effect of alcohol on cognitive functions can be divided into two groups - long-term (total effect depending on regular consumption) and short-term (in the process of drinking and with an increase in the concentration of alcohol in the blood).
When it comes to long-term effects, there are three groups of "consumers" - non-drinkers, low-moderate and high consumption. Each person has his own measure, and she should be aware not to drink less, but in this context, small means 1 or less glasses / glasses a week, moderate - up to 2 glasses / glasses a day.
Immediately a reservation that high consumption, both regular and episodic, leads to brain damage. This effect is cumulative throughout life, but the brain can also be “planted” at a young age. Some cognitive functions are able to recover in a “set-up”, but not all and not completely.
As for small and moderate consumption, everything is more interesting.
Naturally, not a single alcohol, and all these effects can be influenced by other factors and nuances of your lifestyle. However, the phenomena mentioned above can be considered statistically significant.
And here we come to the most interesting - exactly the effect, which is described on xkcd . Alcohol stirs the minds of scientists around the world, both figuratively and literally. There are many different studies that consider the issue from different angles.
For example, a group of scientists from the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois in their work “Uncorking the muse” showed that a certain concentration of alcohol in the blood (about 0.75, that for an average programmer’s fatness is 3 bottles of light beer or 3 glasses of non-fortified wine on a full stomach) increases the performance in the test for creativity in comparison with the sober state. For research the system was used Remote Associates Test (test of remote associations). If in short - the subject is given a set of cards with three seemingly unrelated words, his task is to choose the fourth one, which in a certain way connects the given ones. More can be read on the great and all-knowing .
However, such research is very limited and one-sided. The creative process, which is programming, is a complex interweaving of various cognitive functions. Fortunately, there are more in-depth studies analyzing the effect of alcohol on individual components of the creative process.
Back in 1926, the British social psychologist Graham Wallace (Graham Wallas) published a theory describing 4 stages of the creative process:
Later another researcher added another phase. They called it very scientific - restitution. And in fact, it is a recuperation, a respite, a relaxation of the rolls - as you like. By the way, this phase is very necessary, and if you ignore it, you can easily earn burnout. This is especially true for startup employees.
Swedish researcher Torsten Norlander conducted an analysis of dozens of different studies on the topic, which resulted in a 20-page article . Most of the research concerned writers, composers, etc. Nolander came to the following conclusion:
What does this mean for us? Obviously should not be used while reading manuals and directly in the coding process. However, if there is a creative stagnation - a bottle of beer or a glass of wine may well move things off the ground. They can help to relax a bit after intense coding (remember the rate of moderate consumption).
Another group went beyond the literary review. They conducted their own research, but not limited to only one test. They carried out measurements on six different tests, testing various cognitive functions, one way or another involved in the creative process. Studies were conducted at four different concentrations of alcohol in the blood: 0.0, 0.48, 0.82 and 1.0 1.0 at time 0, +60 min, +120 min and +180 min, respectively. The results are presented in the article “The Effects of Alcohol Dosage on Cognitive Functions” ( “Dose-Related Effects of Alcohol on Cognitive Functioning” ). A brief description of the tests:
What of this is important in programming? In my opinion, TSP and SOPT tests are the closest to the “mental” component of programming (alignment in the head and the embodiment of the solution), IT, UFOV and TMT to the mechanical (visual orientation in the code), SART is irrelevant. I am pleased to read your opinions on this issue in the comments.
What happened? Below is a graph showing the baseline results of eight variations of the base six tests. A higher z-score value corresponds to a longer time spent on the task (i.e. a deterioration in the test result). White triangles - sober immaculate group, black - tipsy. Asterisks are points with a statistically significant difference.
So, we can see that surprisingly multivariate strategic thinking (TSP test) is almost unaffected by alcohol at concentrations up to 1.0, but there is a noticeable deterioration in short-term memory (SOPT test). Those. we can still solve the task, but it will be more difficult for us to keep the difficult decision in mind.
Adds fuel to the fire deterioration of all three tests for the ability to visual orientation. As a general result, while retaining the ability to solve a problem, it will be more difficult to translate it into code.
From the personal experience of coding with the activity tracker turned on, I can say that although after a beer or the other it may seem that you are working no worse, it only seems. But you understand this only the next day, when you look at yesterday’s chart of keyboard activity soberly.
And draw your own conclusions. Science says that a little alcohol helps to get out of creative stagnation, but makes it difficult to concentrate on the work process. And it helps a lot to get the soul out of the mortal body in many ways. And Zhvanetsky generally says that alcohol in small doses is harmless in any quantity.
All goodfrigging Friday.
PS According to Evan Sultanik, in reality the graph on the XKCD is only a two-dimensional slice of the three-dimensional graph. The third axis is the resistance of the programming language to the human factor.
PPS Thank you for staying with us. Do you like our articles? Want to see more interesting materials? Support us by placing an order or recommending to friends, 30% discount for Habr's users on a unique analogue of the entry-level servers that we invented for you: The whole truth about VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps from $ 20 or how to share the server? (Options are available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4).
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I noticed that alcohol suppresses that quiet voice in my head, whispering something like “are you sure it will work?” And “maybe you should check it out?” It suppresses so much that it seems as if the code is pouring out of me, like from a horn of plenty .
')
The problem is that the next day you realize that you should listen to this voice. You were not sure that it would work, and it was worth checking out.
From the “Programming with Alcohol” branch on Reddit
In my short article I will not tell you that alcohol is salvation, or that it is universal evil. Much has been written about the positive or negative effects of ethanol on the body. Including there are certain studies showing that he can have a positive effect on mental abilities, if you know the measure.
From far away from programming, low / moderate alcohol consumption slows down cognitive decline and reduces susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease.
We are getting closer. The overall effect of alcohol on cognitive functions can be divided into two groups - long-term (total effect depending on regular consumption) and short-term (in the process of drinking and with an increase in the concentration of alcohol in the blood).
Long term exposure
When it comes to long-term effects, there are three groups of "consumers" - non-drinkers, low-moderate and high consumption. Each person has his own measure, and she should be aware not to drink less, but in this context, small means 1 or less glasses / glasses a week, moderate - up to 2 glasses / glasses a day.
Immediately a reservation that high consumption, both regular and episodic, leads to brain damage. This effect is cumulative throughout life, but the brain can also be “planted” at a young age. Some cognitive functions are able to recover in a “set-up”, but not all and not completely.
As for small and moderate consumption, everything is more interesting.
- Studies show that moderate alcohol consumption can slow down mental decline with age. However, most of us care little about this effect, since concerns mostly older people. And, as mentioned, moderate consumption slows down the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
- Some studies show not only a positive effect on cognitive function, but also on a subjective sense of well-being, as well as fewer symptoms of depression in few and moderately consuming compared with sober-drinkers. And this is more interesting to us, because programmers are one of the risk groups for developing depression. I will write about our occupational risks and diseases sometime later. Subscribe to the blog to not miss. This effect is observed not only in old age, but also among young people. Interestingly, in the elderly this effect is more pronounced in women than in men.
- The positive impact on mental abilities is better manifested in the current "consumers" in comparison with sober and tied-up ones. Studies have shown this effect for both regular and occasional consumption, but unfortunately, they did not determine the measure.
Naturally, not a single alcohol, and all these effects can be influenced by other factors and nuances of your lifestyle. However, the phenomena mentioned above can be considered statistically significant.
Short term exposure
And here we come to the most interesting - exactly the effect, which is described on xkcd . Alcohol stirs the minds of scientists around the world, both figuratively and literally. There are many different studies that consider the issue from different angles.
For example, a group of scientists from the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois in their work “Uncorking the muse” showed that a certain concentration of alcohol in the blood (about 0.75, that for an average programmer’s fatness is 3 bottles of light beer or 3 glasses of non-fortified wine on a full stomach) increases the performance in the test for creativity in comparison with the sober state. For research the system was used Remote Associates Test (test of remote associations). If in short - the subject is given a set of cards with three seemingly unrelated words, his task is to choose the fourth one, which in a certain way connects the given ones. More can be read on the great and all-knowing .
However, such research is very limited and one-sided. The creative process, which is programming, is a complex interweaving of various cognitive functions. Fortunately, there are more in-depth studies analyzing the effect of alcohol on individual components of the creative process.
Back in 1926, the British social psychologist Graham Wallace (Graham Wallas) published a theory describing 4 stages of the creative process:
- Training. At this stage, a comprehensive analysis of the problem is made, materials are collected, i.e. a kind of preparation of the foundation and the bricks that will be needed in the further creative process (in our case it may be a search for available libraries, exploring API capabilities, etc.).
- Bearing No direct work "hands" at this stage is not made, but the brain combines the bricks from the first phase and looks that such interesting things can be folded out of them. In the case of programming, somewhere around the common architecture of the solution of the problem. However, it will finally ripen in the next phase.
- Inspiration. It is at this phase that from somewhere in the depths of the subconscious the familiar to us “yes, here it comes!” Emerges - a clear-cut structure, a creative concept, a plan of action, architecture emerge. As in the case of the previous stage, we cannot by any direct efforts influence when that aha moment comes.
- Check. Stage of direct implementation. Unlike uncontrolled at the conscious level stages 2 and 3, at this stage it is time to take the tool in hand and implement the formed idea
on paperin the code. And, of course, check the viability of our solution.
Later another researcher added another phase. They called it very scientific - restitution. And in fact, it is a recuperation, a respite, a relaxation of the rolls - as you like. By the way, this phase is very necessary, and if you ignore it, you can easily earn burnout. This is especially true for startup employees.
Swedish researcher Torsten Norlander conducted an analysis of dozens of different studies on the topic, which resulted in a 20-page article . Most of the research concerned writers, composers, etc. Nolander came to the following conclusion:
- moderate alcohol consumption complicates the preparation phase;
- there is a beneficial effect on the stage of gestation in the form of a larger number and greater originality of ideas;
- flexibility is reduced, but originality at the inspiration stage increases;
- the stage of verification is complicated (remember the quote at the beginning of the post);
- the restitution phase is facilitated.
What does this mean for us? Obviously should not be used while reading manuals and directly in the coding process. However, if there is a creative stagnation - a bottle of beer or a glass of wine may well move things off the ground. They can help to relax a bit after intense coding (remember the rate of moderate consumption).
Another group went beyond the literary review. They conducted their own research, but not limited to only one test. They carried out measurements on six different tests, testing various cognitive functions, one way or another involved in the creative process. Studies were conducted at four different concentrations of alcohol in the blood: 0.0, 0.48, 0.82 and 1.0 1.0 at time 0, +60 min, +120 min and +180 min, respectively. The results are presented in the article “The Effects of Alcohol Dosage on Cognitive Functions” ( “Dose-Related Effects of Alcohol on Cognitive Functioning” ). A brief description of the tests:
- inspection time (Inspection Time, hereinafter IT ) is a measure of the speed of processing incoming information without being tied to motor skills (the latter, as is known, decreases in any case);
- The problem of a traveling merchant (The Traveling Salesperson Problem, hereinafter TSP ) is a measure of strategic thinking; constant performance monitoring in a situation where it is necessary to make consistent decisions depending on a set of interrelated conditions;
- useful field of view (The Useful Field of View test, hereinafter UFOV ) - a measure of processing speed and distributed visual attention;
- the task of self-ordering (The Self-Ordered Pointing Task, hereinafter SOPT ) is a metric for evaluating working (short-term) memory; requires the subject to hold visual images in the short-term memory and use them when thinking through the response strategy;
- the task of sustained attention to answers (The Sustained Attention to Response task, hereinafter SART ) is a measure of response suppression and cognitive flexibility; subjects must respond quickly to a frequently repeated set of incentives, but refrain from reacting to targeted rare incentives;
- test with paving the way (The Trail-Making Test, hereinafter TMT ) - measures cognitive flexibility and psychomotor functions.
What of this is important in programming? In my opinion, TSP and SOPT tests are the closest to the “mental” component of programming (alignment in the head and the embodiment of the solution), IT, UFOV and TMT to the mechanical (visual orientation in the code), SART is irrelevant. I am pleased to read your opinions on this issue in the comments.
What happened? Below is a graph showing the baseline results of eight variations of the base six tests. A higher z-score value corresponds to a longer time spent on the task (i.e. a deterioration in the test result). White triangles - sober immaculate group, black - tipsy. Asterisks are points with a statistically significant difference.
So, we can see that surprisingly multivariate strategic thinking (TSP test) is almost unaffected by alcohol at concentrations up to 1.0, but there is a noticeable deterioration in short-term memory (SOPT test). Those. we can still solve the task, but it will be more difficult for us to keep the difficult decision in mind.
Adds fuel to the fire deterioration of all three tests for the ability to visual orientation. As a general result, while retaining the ability to solve a problem, it will be more difficult to translate it into code.
From the personal experience of coding with the activity tracker turned on, I can say that although after a beer or the other it may seem that you are working no worse, it only seems. But you understand this only the next day, when you look at yesterday’s chart of keyboard activity soberly.
findings
And draw your own conclusions. Science says that a little alcohol helps to get out of creative stagnation, but makes it difficult to concentrate on the work process. And it helps a lot to get the soul out of the mortal body in many ways. And Zhvanetsky generally says that alcohol in small doses is harmless in any quantity.
All good
PS According to Evan Sultanik, in reality the graph on the XKCD is only a two-dimensional slice of the three-dimensional graph. The third axis is the resistance of the programming language to the human factor.
PPS Thank you for staying with us. Do you like our articles? Want to see more interesting materials? Support us by placing an order or recommending to friends, 30% discount for Habr's users on a unique analogue of the entry-level servers that we invented for you: The whole truth about VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps from $ 20 or how to share the server? (Options are available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4).
Dell R730xd 2 times cheaper? Only we have 2 x Intel Dodeca-Core Xeon E5-2650v4 128GB DDR4 6x480GB SSD 1Gbps 100 TV from $ 249 in the Netherlands and the USA! Read about How to build an infrastructure building. class c using servers Dell R730xd E5-2650 v4 worth 9000 euros for a penny?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/272611/
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