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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)

#141

Post by darkerside »

wombatmobile wrote: post #97
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…

It's interesting to read so many comments against marathon sessions. I can't imagine reading the same set of comments 20 years ago (when I was young and a frequent marathoner, as were my teammates). Is this indicative of a cultural shift in the industry? Or collective learning? Or might it just be that no 20 somethings are commenting here and it's just a sample bias resulting from older commentators? Do 20 something…

When you don't know anything (20-something), you need the marathon session to learn as well as to be productive.

When you know more, you are able to apply leverage to do more in less time, and a marathon session is a waste of time.

IMO, telling young folks not to push themselves is intellectually pulling up the ladder behind ourselves.

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

#142

Post by megaframe »

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…

I think this is similar to sitting in a coffee shop doing work with a coworker. The game is the work you're primarily focused on. Your coworker is there but only occasionally engaging between thoughts. The Video is the background activity of the coffee shop, it's there but you're not that focused on it unless something unusual occurs.

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

#143

Post by 0xFACEFEED »

darkerside wrote: post #140
godot wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will preface this by saying I agree with you. However, I'd like to point out (as someone else did too about downplaying the upside) -- if you did get rewarded with money, respect, promotions (decision making power), knowledge -- these are all real material gains from those long hours. True, from the business point of view, your extra hours didn't matter to the business in the long run. It did matter for your career…

I learned a lot and shipped a lot in the few "long hours" coding sessions I did in my life. Those returns then compound over the rest of your career. Just because parent post went overboard doesn't mean it's a bad idea for people to challenge themselves once in a while.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional late night session. Or even pulling an all nighter every once in a while. If I had a chance to redo my choices then I'd keep a lot of those sessions. Nothing compares to the feeling of zen I felt in those moments.

What I'm cautioning against is a consistent strategy of brute force work in order to compensate for other things (fear of failure in my case). It's like the difference between socially drinking and being an alcoholic.

Long way of saying I agree with you.

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

#144

Post by hintymad »

Does it depend on the definition of multi-tasking?

We take multiple courses in colleges, and we switch context all the time. I often worked on an assignment or reviewed coursework between two classes. I usually took no fewer than 5 classes in a semester, and a class usually had 4 to 6 assignments, 2 to 3 midterms, and a final. So we often had multiple assignments or tests due at the same day, which means we had to work on multiple tasks in a day too.

Similarly, we became more multi-tasked when we grew more senior. A design review now, a product planning meeting in the next hour, followed by an 1-on-1 to discuss a particular issue, and then a task to write a white paper. Again, multi tasking in my eyes. One does carve out some quite time for deep think, but the majority of the time will be broken into back-to-back meetings for multiple tasks.

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

#145

Post by SquibblesRedux »

The problem may not be task switching, but rather an intentional suppression of inhibitory control.

Another interesting perspective on task-switching (or set-shifting):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_switching_(psychology)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4354620/ (The Attentional Set Shifting Task: A Measure of Cognitive Flexibility in Mice)

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

#146

Post by pocket_cheese »

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…

How dare you describe me so accurately. But all jokes aside, this is my current situation and so far I've been unsuccessful in finding motivation without subjecting myself to bone-crushing anxiety that comes with working with people I think are way smarter than me.

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

#148

Post by not2b »

For a developer, I think multitasking between two tasks (a higher priority task and a lower priority task that can be worked on while the higher priority task is blocked or waiting or otherwise stuck) is manageable and can work well. Beyond two the task switching cost gets too high in a hurry. It's also not good if management/customers are insisting that both tasks are very high priority, it's too stressful to juggle them then.

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

#149

Post by onethought »

hintymad wrote: post #144

Does it depend on the definition of multi-tasking? We take multiple courses in colleges, and we switch context all the time. I often worked on an assignment or reviewed coursework between two classes. I usually took no fewer than 5 classes in a semester, and a class usually had 4 to 6 assignments, 2 to 3 midterms, and a final. So we often had multiple assignments or tests due at the same day, which means we had to wo…

I think the point is, it is suboptimal. You’d get better results if you minimised the contextual splits for natural moments of completion rather than unnatural moments of interrupt.

This holds true in computing theory, feeding 10 things to a single core in sequence is more efficient than feeding 10 things at once and having the CPU handle interrupts.

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

#150

Post by Quekid5 »

not2b wrote: post #148

For a developer, I think multitasking between two tasks (a higher priority task and a lower priority task that can be worked on while the higher priority task is blocked or waiting or otherwise stuck) is manageable and can work well. Beyond two the task switching cost gets too high in a hurry. It's also not good if management/customers are insisting that both tasks are very high priority, it's too stressful to juggle…

I'm not sure that's multitasking per se. That's just prioritizing or triage.

You're still working on a single thing at a time.

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