Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018) • Hacker News Board

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#81

Post by pyridines » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:44 PM UTC

jvidalv wrote: post #54

LZ_Khan wrote: post #43

Genuine question then.. how are we supposed to function properly as software engineers, especially in jobs with long feedback loops? The nature of my job is that I'm almost more of a train conductor than a software engineer. I configure a job, run it, then wait for 10-30 minutes to get the results. I do this for maybe 5 jobs at a time, on 5 different projects. Naturally I feel a lot of stress and cognitive burden whi…

Get a frontend job, instant compile time haha

Not necessarily, our frontend repo takes almost as long as the backend to compile. I'm hoping we switch to esbuild at some point.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#82

Post by belval » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:44 PM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

nicoburns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you say is true over the long term, but not so much over the short term. Need me to skip breaks and work hours for one day when I'm well rested. I definitely can be significantly more productive than usual. Problem is that it's not sustainable.

It took me over 15 years in the industry to realize a couple of things. If you're young and reading this then I hope you at least spend a few minutes thinking deeply about it. 1) Any productivity gained over that one-or-two-day session makes very little difference in the big picture. Even a week. A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hou…

Thank you for taking the time to write this, I got a job at FANG right out of college and the impostor syndrome is real so I have compensated with a lot of extra work. Unfortunately the truth is at this scale my contribution makes little difference and the extra hours even less so. I just end up burning myself out over nothing.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#83

Post by Teknoman117 » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

nicoburns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you say is true over the long term, but not so much over the short term. Need me to skip breaks and work hours for one day when I'm well rested. I definitely can be significantly more productive than usual. Problem is that it's not sustainable.

It took me over 15 years in the industry to realize a couple of things. If you're young and reading this then I hope you at least spend a few minutes thinking deeply about it. 1) Any productivity gained over that one-or-two-day session makes very little difference in the big picture. Even a week. A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hou…

I consider myself fairly lucky to have landed a job at a place that figured this out right out of school.

The unhealthy behavior on my part is comparing myself to my friends who went to the Bay and make basically the same salary but get like $100k in RSUs per year on top of it, or those who have the mental endurance to juggle a FAANG job and fairly lucrative contract work on the side.

Even though the numbers are attractive, I enjoy having the time to have a life on the side. I don't really like the concept of "work is life" that the big bay area tech companies seem to have. Not exactly doing much with it right now, but I could if I wanted to...

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#84

Post by mapcars » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

leoh wrote: post #49

mapcars wrote: post #48

This is not true, there are yogis who can do dozens and even hundreds things at the same time. These researchers study people who never did any work on their mind and make statements about whole humanity.

I have never heard of this, source?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzlIfzj6xfo

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#85

Post by wildrhythms » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:46 PM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

nicoburns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you say is true over the long term, but not so much over the short term. Need me to skip breaks and work hours for one day when I'm well rested. I definitely can be significantly more productive than usual. Problem is that it's not sustainable.

It took me over 15 years in the industry to realize a couple of things. If you're young and reading this then I hope you at least spend a few minutes thinking deeply about it. 1) Any productivity gained over that one-or-two-day session makes very little difference in the big picture. Even a week. A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hou…

100% my experience. Burnout is never worth it.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#86

Post by bobthechef » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

refactor_master wrote: post #5

Again and again, people just refuse to accept that cognitive performance has very clear limits, and that multitasking, skipped breaks and long hours are, at best, a total waste of time. And exponentially so, the more “focus-intensive” the work is. Why do we have this bias? Is it deeply wired in some sort of survival instinct?

I really dislike reaching for these sorts of evolutionary "explanations". They're typically unconvincing ad hoc just-so stories with no real attempt at systematically establishing the truth of the various mutually contradictory claims. Evolutionary psychology is notorious in this regard.

Instead, I will only add that distractability is emotional and moral in nature. When I feel uncomfortable, I will be tempted to switch to something else to relieve the discomfort. The inability to engage in self-denial is one reason for indulging the temptation (which is why fasting and abstinence are great ways to engage in self-denial and strengthen one's self-mastery; you can always spot a person's weakness by the passions they overindulge and which seem to control them). Historically, this inability to do without pleasure was called effeminacy and the inability to bear discomfort was called delicacy (the Greek μαλακία has been translated into either, I think). Sustained focus is toil and toil is uncomfortable and requires both enduring discomfort and relinquishing pleasure.

Another reason may be related to mental health. Distractions and diversions become especially attractive when under duress.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#87

Post by dkersten » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:48 PM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

nicoburns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you say is true over the long term, but not so much over the short term. Need me to skip breaks and work hours for one day when I'm well rested. I definitely can be significantly more productive than usual. Problem is that it's not sustainable.

It took me over 15 years in the industry to realize a couple of things. If you're young and reading this then I hope you at least spend a few minutes thinking deeply about it. 1) Any productivity gained over that one-or-two-day session makes very little difference in the big picture. Even a week. A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hou…

Great post. It reminded me of something I experienced in a previous job:

One of my coworkers worked a lot of overtime at one point, I think he liked to feel like the hero. In order to make sure a particular project was delivered in time.

Guess what happened? The client just randomly pushed the deadline back a few months making all the overtime unnecessary.

I know you can’t know if this will happen ahead of time, but it still reminded me that you can put in all the effort in the world and not get anything for it. Personally, I will do my absolute best within the confines of my contract, and no more. I might do some occasional overtime if it’s needed, but I expect my employer to return the favour when I need some time off or flexibility.

I’ve had too many health issues from my past bad work practices (it’s hard to have good work practices when doing your own startups...) to do any more than that. Hell im being treated for high blood pressure right now...

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#88

Post by kevingadd » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

refactor_master wrote: post #5

Again and again, people just refuse to accept that cognitive performance has very clear limits, and that multitasking, skipped breaks and long hours are, at best, a total waste of time. And exponentially so, the more “focus-intensive” the work is. Why do we have this bias? Is it deeply wired in some sort of survival instinct?

Ever since I learned that a lot of the standards for medical schedules, long work hours etc were set by a cocaine addict who believed it was natural to pull long hours (https://historydaily.org/cocaine-and-modern-medicine-a-twist...) it's really stuck with me.

So many bad practices basically persist due to inertia and we all suffer for it.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#89

Post by Rimpinths » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:51 PM UTC

slver wrote: post #40

danboarder wrote: post #36

Multitasking gets a bad rap but I would suggest that not everything we call "multitasking" disrupts focus. For example, many tasks become background processes and some provide rhythm for improved focus. In my experience, for example, listening to a Lex Fridman podcast while doing Photoshop design works great together and I think is better when done together than not, perhaps using different parts of the brain. Likewi…

Yup. The key is to find combinations of activities that don't conflict with each other. I also can work and breathe at the same time (neat trick). /s

Right. I love to listen to music while coding, but I couldn't listen to a podcast. I've tried, but I can't write words and listen to words at the same time. But music is no problem.

Re: Multitasking hurts performance and may even damage the brain (2018)

#90

Post by ajfjrbfbf » Tue, May 04, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

nicoburns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what you say is true over the long term, but not so much over the short term. Need me to skip breaks and work hours for one day when I'm well rested. I definitely can be significantly more productive than usual. Problem is that it's not sustainable.

It took me over 15 years in the industry to realize a couple of things. If you're young and reading this then I hope you at least spend a few minutes thinking deeply about it. 1) Any productivity gained over that one-or-two-day session makes very little difference in the big picture. Even a week. A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hou…

> It didn't help that I was rewarded with more money, more respect, and more decision making power. I was even rewarded with more knowledge than everyone else -- you learn a lot working 12 hours a day. And if you screw something up you have plenty of time to fix it.

As an intern this feels like everything I want though. More money, more respect, more decision making power, and most importantly, more knowledge. Fortunately my job is done after 4 months no matter what.