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

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

#111

Post by 0xFACEFEED »

belval wrote: post #82
0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> the impostor syndrome is real

Take this with a grain of salt, but I've found myself happiest working for small companies with people that I like being around. The list of reasons why is quite long (I can elaborate if you like), but the only unfortunate downside is you make a lot less money. You do have a chance of winning big in the acquisition lottery though.

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

#112

Post by bitL »

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?

> Why do we have this bias?

It's about the control in hierarchy. The more one is flooded with streams of work, the lower is the chance of threatening somebody or leaving for greener pastures (leaving to worse ones is more likely for an exhausted person).

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

#113

Post by Graffur »

andrewstuart wrote: post #11

My primary school age son, and anecdotally, lots of other kids of similar age, relentlessly multitask in ways that hurts my brain just to think about. He literally is playing a game, watching a YouTube video in another screen, and talking to friends at the same time, and in the most extreme case, is even listening to an audiobook or podcast as well. Asking kids about it, they all say that's just what they do and look…

That is possible because your son doesn't HAVE to do any of those things. He wants to do them. There's no external pressure - deadlines, impressions. There's no reluctance. There's no examination of how well he listened to any of it.

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

#115

Post by 01100011 »

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…

> A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hours.

Sort of.

Several 'death marches' over my career were in fact necessary for business reasons. Large penalties can exist in contracts when deadlines are not met. No one is going to reschedule CES, the Christmas shopping season, or the Superbowl for you because you were running behind. In some cases, missing a deadline throws off the schedule of hundreds or thousands of people in your organization who depend on your work. It's true that many times it doesn't matter, but many times it does absolutely matter. I'd like to think I got to where I am in my career because I'm willing to put in the effort to make those sorts of deadlines.

> My reasons for doing these marathon sessions was a lie.

My reason for doing it is because it's the job. I came into engineering with the expectation that it is an important job that often demands much of you but also affords you with a great deal of flexibility and self-determination. I get to take off time whenever I want and WFH whenever I want because I accept that there will be times when I absolutely cannot do whatever I want.

It depends on the specifics of your job as well. Some indie game dev can probably just delay their release a few days. Embedded devs are often on a schedule dictated by hardware schedules, production schedules, factory availability, shipping time, etc. etc. Just because the job is software doesn't mean it has to resemble any other software job.

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

#116

Post by 0xFACEFEED »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #92
0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 understand the premise of what you're saying, but I also feel like you're downplaying the upside: > 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

This is true.

I was only able to reflect on these things after "making it". I feel comfortable financially and confident that I'll get work for the rest of my life, if I need it.

There was a cost though. Like a greek tragedy of sorts.

It cost me my health. I don't get to enjoy the spoils of "victory" as much as I would have when I felt healthy. Health is now a factor to consider daily and, in my case, it's directly attributed to the insane amount of myself that I put into the work.

Another cost was missing out on precious time with my wife and child. That one really sucks. No undoing that one.

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

#117

Post by outworlder »

01100011 wrote: post #115
0xFACEFEED wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> A company/product/feature is never going to live or die on that 30 hours of coding that you managed to squeeze into 48 hours. Sort of. Several 'death marches' over my career were in fact necessary for business reasons. Large penalties can exist in contracts when deadlines are not met. No one is going to reschedule CES, the Christmas shopping season, or the Superbowl for you because you were running behind. In some…

> Large penalties can exist in contracts when deadlines are not met.

If you are cutting it so close that an extra few hours are the difference between delivering or not, _ the project has been a failure for quite a while _

Some things cannot be easily foreseen and you have to fight some fires. That's fine. But let's not normalize lack of planning.

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

#118

Post by buwka »

calderarrow wrote: post #104

Somewhat of a personal tangent, but I exclusively use 1 screen, and rarely split windows or have more than 1 application open when working. When I need to bounce between code/browser, documentation/code, or email/HN, I use the alt/command-tab functionality. I find it slower having to switch between viewing different screens or moving my head, yet I'm the only one in my friend group who does this -- everyone else seem…

I definitely find dual monitors or more for splitting code, documentation, or other relevant project information to be similar to having multiple papers lying across my desk. I don’t want to stack the pages on top of one another but instead I prefer to lie them all on one large desk. Usually I’m only working on one page but need other references. If another paper truly is important than I can use Spectacle to quickly reorganize.

Having email, slack, discord, or HN open is an absolute no go. Nothing more distracting than focusing on a project and seeing new emails or messages stream in. I try to limit those to a separate laptop or tablet at all times.

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

#119

Post by eloff »

icelancer wrote: post #73
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?

>> 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 These studies are non-ergodic. I work best under long hours; have tried both. The real proof in the pudding is the fact that many of my competitors work "efficient" work weeks and get buried under the onslaught of hours I work. For…

Maybe, but if you're running a company you basically are doing highly leveraged decisions. Making more decisions is not nearly as important as making the right ones - and being overworked is not conducive to that.

Getting your sleep, eating well, exercising, seems more important.

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

#120

Post by lostmsu »

This is total crap. TL;DR;

1. When doing multiple things at once performance is reduced in each of those things (thank you capt. Obvious).

2. Doing multiple things at once in a specific setting correlates with reduced activity in some brain areas. Casuality not demonstrated either way. No demonstrated relationship between "brain damage" and lower activity, so the claim in the title is at least two logical errors away from the raw data.

3. Buy this new book about EQ (which is pseudoscientific crap on its own).

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