On my note, I've found alcohol is great for letting you tackle problems once you have a good enough toolbox (that you know how to use). In other words, its kinda trash to learn a new programming language while drunk, but once you know one, it's great for dealing with random/novel situations. I get this especially while going through my school work (particularly physics). Once I have my toolbox of equations and laws to work with, getting buzzed just makes it feel 'easier' to see the solution, and how to put those pieces together.

Somewhat different from the learning a new language example (they are clearly still putting together their toolboxes), but it's also a question of tolerance. Equations and compilers are a lot less tolerant of syntactic (and just in general) mistakes than another human... especially another one at the bar.