From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Ballmer Peak is a humorous concept invented by Randall Munroe in the xkcd webcomic , joking that a programmer who is appropriately intoxicated (between 0.129-0.138% BAC ) will achieve a high level of programming productivity ; the peak occurs at 0.1337%, a reference to leet . The concept is loosely tied to former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and is likely a play on Balmer series of hydrogen spectral lines named for the scientist Johann Balmer . [ 3 ] A San Francisco organization, Originate, has organized a "Ballmer Peak-A-Thon", an open bar event where people were given "5 hours to find the elusive Ballmer peak, and build the best worst business possible." [ 2 ] [ 4 ] There is no scientific basis for the Ballmer Peak, though researchers have studied adjacent topics, such as the impact of inebriation on problem solving .…