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Beer Medicine Science

Problem Solver Beer Tells How Much To Drink To Boost Your Creativity 73

Posted by samzenpus from the I-know-I-could-do-this-if-I-could-just-have-a-beer dept.
mrspoonsi writes When you've been stuck on a problem or that creative spark just won't come, the chances are you've turned to a cup of coffee to get things moving. A quick java infusion can certainly help, but studies also suggest that alcohol can also have a positive impact on your creative cognition. University of Illinois Professor Jennifer Wiley determined that a person's "creative peak" comes when their blood alcohol level reaches 0.075, lowering their ability to overthink during a task. Medical Daily reports that marketing agency CP+B Copenhagen and Danish brewery Rocket Brewing wanted to help drinkers reach their imaginative prime, so they decided to create their own beer to do just that. The result is The Problem Solver. It's a 7.1 percent craft IPA that its makers say offers a "refined bitterness with a refreshing finish." To ensure you reach the optimum creative level, the bottle includes a scale, which determines how much of the beer you need to drink based on your body weight. The agency does offer a word of warning though: "Enjoying the right amount will enhance your creative thinking. Drinking more will probably do exactly the opposite."
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Problem Solver Beer Tells How Much To Drink To Boost Your Creativity More

Problem Solver Beer Tells How Much To Drink To Boost Your Creativity

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  • Obligatory xkcd (Score:5, Funny)

    by rwa2 ( 4391 ) * on Monday December 22, 2014 @01:17PM (#48653435) Homepage Journal

    http://xkcd.com/323/ [xkcd.com]

    It's only off by a factor of 2... good enough for experimental physics, I suppose.

    • Programmer's Pizza*

      Eating just the right amount will allow you to reach optimum blood sugar levels for creative programming. However, be warned that eating too much will probably put you to sleep.

      Please watch this space for the introduction of our follow-up product: Programmer's Spaghetti (with Object-Oriented Meatballs)*

      *Garlic levels tailored for maximum personal isolation. Do not use if in a relationship or if expecting a job interview. May cause immediate termination of relations, arms-length disease, a

  • Hey bosh ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Monday December 22, 2014 @01:23PM (#48653499) Homepage

    I shtink I've sholved the problem ... we had a working lunch and did some sh-sh-sh-shpit balling to come up with a creative sholooshn.

    Moshtly we concluded you're a dick.

    Shisherely, your shtaff.

    How's that for "refined bitterness with a refreshing finish"?

    Seriously, there's a massive amount of bad idea lurking in there somewhere.

  • There are better answers (Score:3)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Monday December 22, 2014 @01:24PM (#48653515)

    >> java infusion can certainly help, but studies also suggest that alcohol can also have a positive impact

    A better idea then: mix the two. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... [wikipedia.org]

  • Beer usually creates more problems than it solves.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Holi ( 250190 )

      "Alcohol, the cause, and solution to all life's problems" - Homer J. Simpson

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Misagon ( 1135 )

      Finding Danish beer these days that is not IPA or does not taste like IPA is a problem.

      Of course, you could always go with cheap lager, but you wouldn't want to do that either.

  • Beers for ideas, Coffee for working.
    So true.

    However, merely drinking doesn't spark any good creative ideas unless you have spend considerable time thinking about the subject before. Also, the magic doesn't happen unless you have somebody to discuss the ideas with.

    • Speak for yourselves. Myself and I have have had many a productive alcohol-fueled brainstorming session.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Pope ( 17780 )

      I've heard it most along the lines of "Beer for writing, coffee for editing," but then I hang out with a lot of writers so they're biased to a certain task :D

  • 0.075 is above our legal limit of 0.05 for driving.

    Excuses, even if very creative, like I was just driving around the block with the window open to clear my head, won't work.

    So best to just sit in the pub morosely pondering whatever problem you are trying to solve.

    My problem is, at point 0.075 I'm most creative, but at 0.076 I lapse into an existential crisis and think why bother. working on that problem anyway. Plenty of way more fun things to do around here.

  • I must be one of the most creative people alive.

  • Cannabis works better (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    And is safer, etc, etc, etc,....

  • Al Murray has covered this topic in some depth here [youtube.com].

  • University of Illinois Professor Jennifer Wiley is very creative. I am not sure how drunk she was when she made this bold connection. Other professors probably made the connection too but they had not been loosened up enough to actually present it as a scientific paper. Or may be her grad students came up with this "project" to drink beer and send the tab to the university.

    We thought someone got a Nobel prize for staring into a stein of beer. [wikipedia.org] Turns out that was not true. So first Nobel prize for drinkin

  • As much as I enjoy a cold pint of lager, I do not turn to alcohol to solve problems.

    I've always found that pondering a problem just before sleep and dreaming about it will usually result in a revelation upon awakening.

    The best part about it is that there's no hangover.

  • 0.075 what?

    I'm assuming it's not just a dimensionless ratio, because then your blood would be like Chimay.

    • Presumably it's talking about a BAC [wikipedia.org], but it's bad practice to not be explicit, even with a dimensionless ratio. After all, this possible dimensionless ratio might be not be based on the ratio of alcohol to blood but blood to alcohol...which poses an entirely different problem.

    • BAC [wikipedia.org], it's the standard measure of how much alcohol is in your system.

      • If you'd bothered to read the document you failed to link to you'd see it's not standard at all. At least three different units are in use.

        And if you'd paid attention in maths class, you'd know that 0.075 and 0.075% are not the same thing.

        • Had you read the summary, or the article, or the entire Wiki page you'd have caught that:

          1. That they're referring to when a person's "blood alcohol level reaches 0.075" [In the article summary].
          2. That the explanation given in the Wikipedia article explains what is meant by blood alcohol level, and notes that it is a term used along side Blood Alcohol Content.
          3. The units of measure are interchangeable given the way they're measured, this is why the wiki article gives that handy This much in method A is eq

  • .005% more is legally intoxicated in most states. That is a might fine line to walk...

    • Semantics about BAC vs % aside, you're off by an order of magnitude. Generally it's 0.05, not 0.005 in the US [wikipedia.org].

  • "Medical Daily reports that marketing agency CP+B Copenhagen and Danish brewery Rocket Brewing wanted to help drinkers reach their imaginative prime, so they decided to create their own beer to do just that."

    Surely, they couldn't have another motive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      That and it' simply false. Someone is more creative when drunk because a sober person has filters in place. The intoxication inhibits the filters. So the drunk person wants to find out what happens when they do this. "Hey, Bubba, watch this" followed by riding a lawnmower into a pool, or something else similarly stupid.

      "Creative" generally implies an ability to solve some problem. Alcohol doesn't help there. It doesn't even help artists solve the problem of drawing Love or whatever they are stumped d

  • This isn't new. (Score:3)

    by oneiros27 ( 46144 ) on Monday December 22, 2014 @02:08PM (#48653893) Homepage

    The engineering fraternity where I did my undergrad had been doing research on this topic since at least the early 1990s, and I suspect since well before that.

    My understanding of their procedure was they had a couple of beers the night before ... not so much to have a hang over, and then another beer a couple of hours before the test. ... but I suspect that it's different for each person, as I've seen some amazing code come out of Swedish programmers who were completely wasted. (although, I wouldn't want to be the one to maintain it).

  • They should call it "Thinking Cap". Instead of putting it on, you pop one off.

  • What's with all the puritans? (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Monday December 22, 2014 @03:05PM (#48654415) Homepage Journal

    At one time nobody thought anything of it if you kept a flask or a pint in a desk drawer. Nobody cared if you had a couple drinks at lunch (or just because). As long as you didn't get tipsy or do it constantly, nobody cared.

    Now, even the suggestion of it has people picturing people chugging, throwing up in the trash can and getting hung over. Nobody suggested that THAT much beer was a good idea.

  • So it's come to this? (Score:3)

    by mynamestolen ( 2566945 ) on Monday December 22, 2014 @03:20PM (#48654529)

    Thanks Slashdot. Product placement and bullshit "science" for the alcohol industry.

  • Bowling, video games, coding, homework, conversation, even speaking a foreign language - you'll do better on one beer (YMMV as to amount).

    The hard part is stopping or spacing it out enough. Because after that it's all downhill. Except maybe the conversation, and that's probably an illusion.

  • It sounds more like it inhibits overthinking, and enables decision-making, meaning it wouldn't help unless the creativity was already there.

  • Use something like Alcodroid [google.com] to estimate your BAC, using your weight, how much you just ate, etc. etc., and you can drink to your creativity level with ease.
  • I remember discussing Beer's Law in chemistry over a few. You have a fine line between more creativity and where the extinction coefficient takes over and you blotto. A couple does help the conversation and helps people that are reserved share their ideas and help stimulate more discussion. So I do think it helps group creativity. (Oh you mean drinking?)
  • No it doesn't. Don't use Java.
  • I think smoking weed would work much better.

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