Thief, or Procrastinator.

Yoink.

Actually I've probably been all of these at various times in my career.

I use 8, but only when I'm operating on unsigned longs.

I'm mostly lost and in over my head

Why use const max = (x, y) => x > y ? x : y instead of function max(x, y) { return x > y ? x : y } ?

here’s another mathematical approach (that has the added benefit of only working when x and y are both positive).

let f denote the linear functional on ℝ^2^ defined by f(1,0) = x and f(0,1) = y (and extend by linearity). then the operator norm || f || is equal to max(x,y).

2, but I'm incredibly embarrassed to say that I've had to do 9 before

my $max = $x > $y ? $x : $y;