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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

There is a vast difference between not drinking at all, and coming back to work muddle-headed and slow. Especially at a technology company. If you're just moving packages between bins in the mail room, ok maybe. But you're for instance checking in to my code base, forget it.

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You're severely underestimating a lot of people's alcohol tolerance, I think.

People actually tend to overestimate their own alcohol tolerance.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21604830

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19895775

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12198408

No, I understand that completely. Some folks can look normal, while their critical judgment skills are already compromised. Those with high tolerance are a bigger problem than most.

> Some folks can look normal, while their critical judgment skills are already compromised.

I think that this illustrates that you do not understand that completely.

My ancestors for thousands of years have drank everyday, and they managed not only to survive but reproduce. I think the same goes for every person of European descent. We can drink an awful lot and be fine.

...and yet, I don't imagine they were checking into a kernel source base very often. Maybe they managed to not-chop-off-their-hand while cutting trees.

Mine managed to put a scientific instrument on Mars.

In IT/Programming, if you go out to lunch, a beer or two is not going to hurt your technical abilities. (anecdotal)

I have actually tested this and several people and some where better at coding with a slight buzz. This is not that uncommon for a range of tasks. People used to break out alcohol for specific types of planning where creativity and the free flow of ideas was useful.

There are even suggestions of long term benefits. The authors concluded that for middle-aged subjects, increasing levels of alcohol consumption were associated with better function regarding some aspects of cognition. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/3/240.long

PS: Initially reflex tests where considered for in car breathalyzers, but many people performed better slightly over the legal limit than they did normally.

> "I have actually tested this and several people and some where better at coding with a slight buzz."

I've experienced this once before, not with coding but with software testing. Liquid lunch (couple of pints of Guinness), and was a lot easier to focus on work after lunch because the slight buzz kept me feeling warm and happy, I remember being quite productive. It's not something that I'd want to make into a habit but I definitely think it can help with focus on repetitive tasks (so long as it's well within your personal limits).

...and drunk drivers think they are driving just wonderfully, until they hit a post.

I'm suggesting it helps with repetitive tasks, not tasks that require quick thinking.

Don't move the goalpost.

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