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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)

#231

Post by totetsu »

shoto_io wrote: post #222
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I have some practical question: - Is sitting in a meeting, listening and taking notes multi-tasking? - Is listening to a podcast while jogging multi-tasking? - Cooking and talking to friends on the phone?

I think multitasking is one of those words that has been used so much it has been reified. Ive never really thought it was a real thing outside of some careful and nonuniversal definition. What is inside or outside the task of jogging differs depending on your goal for jogging. And what is central to your attention is also very fluid. same goes for listening to a podcast.. If your on a running machine, listening to Nerd poker, you probably wont miss any of the best jokes, if your running in a city crossing roads listening to 99pi you might not remember it all afterwards. sometimes I find moving while listening to something increases my recall because of the spatial associations made.

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

#232

Post by ajdegol »

hobbescotch wrote: post #229
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I struggle with how to handle this at work. I am a data engineer and while writing new scripts to pull data, the testing process sometimes involves waiting 15 mins to an hour (or more) for all the data to pull. Some times I'll start a new task in the middle of the pull or, if I expect it'll only be a few minutes, I'll flip out my phone. But once the data is finished pulling, I'll then need to jump back it and validat…

Why not automate the last step and send a message on success/failure (or automatically retry based on error type)?

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

#233

Post by ajdegol »

shoto_io wrote: post #222
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I have some practical question: - Is sitting in a meeting, listening and taking notes multi-tasking? - Is listening to a podcast while jogging multi-tasking? - Cooking and talking to friends on the phone?

There are quite a few opinions in the replies to you.

None seem to account for: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-dependent_memory

Do what works for you.

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

#234

Post by meheleventyone »

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #134
nefitty wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This “Type-A” hustle mentality resonates with me. I do see lots of people pushing back on it, ie ridiculing JD’s that mention passion, emphasizing work-life balance, disdain for “brogrammer” culture, etc. This seems especially prevalent on Twitter. My personal life doesn’t allow me to do marathons. If I was single I would probably be hauling ass all day every day. I understand the health implications, but the desire…

I've always thought of brute force work (like marathons) as compensation for not being as gifted as rms, Carmack, etc.

Also part of the domination of those characters is simply being around early enough to get famous. There are loads of people as gifted if not more so who will never see the limelight particularly these days where so many people are working on personal brand building or straight up grifting.

Depending on your own goals brute force or giftedness might not even be necessary let alone sufficient. Particularly when it comes to external validation.

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

#235

Post by imhoguy »

hobbescotch wrote: post #229
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I struggle with how to handle this at work. I am a data engineer and while writing new scripts to pull data, the testing process sometimes involves waiting 15 mins to an hour (or more) for all the data to pull. Some times I'll start a new task in the middle of the pull or, if I expect it'll only be a few minutes, I'll flip out my phone. But once the data is finished pulling, I'll then need to jump back it and validat…

You need to shorten the feedback loop to become productive. Maybe you could optimize your environment to operate on smaller data sets during the development? Introduce sampling, local caching etc. Then once you feel confident about the code you run it over the final data-set.

I often find myself stuck staring at screen when some lengthy process occurs. What helps is adding progress indicator, ETA clock, some audible OS notification on finish. Or better take a walk and get a SMS once the process finishes :)

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

#237

Post by tomcam »

hnick wrote: post #195
solipsism wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was kind of playing in a flow state in PoE so it didn't need my full attention. That's not a flow state. That's autopilot.

Yeah, this is correct. I don't think flow applies if attention is divided.

Very cool that you accepted the feedback. Not easy to do, so take a moment to honor yourself for that.

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

#238

Post by krono »

hnick wrote: post #185
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 am late 30s and do that. I think it is a learned dysfunction / habit / stimulatory addiction. Just last night my wife asked how I can play a game (Path of Exile) and watch YouTube on my other screen. It was a little hard to explain but I mentioned I tend to watch videos I don't really need to look at (in this case it was just the relaxing tones of LockPickingLawyer) and I was kind of playing in a flow state in PoE…

If this behaviour is problematic for you, it might not be a bad idea to get yourself tested for ADHD.

Even more so for @andrewstuart his son. I can only imagine what I could have achieved with early diagnosis and treatment.

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

#239

Post by dandellion »

hobbescotch wrote: post #229
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I struggle with how to handle this at work. I am a data engineer and while writing new scripts to pull data, the testing process sometimes involves waiting 15 mins to an hour (or more) for all the data to pull. Some times I'll start a new task in the middle of the pull or, if I expect it'll only be a few minutes, I'll flip out my phone. But once the data is finished pulling, I'll then need to jump back it and validat…

I usually try to have a single main task that requires my attention, and fill the gaps with menial tasks that don't require a lot of focus, clean up the code, improve documentation, add examples, spell check the wiki, stuff like that. If I run out of things I'll search for some article or tutorial about something related like a library or a tool I'm using and see if there's anything useful in there that I can apply to my code. If that's still not enough I'll consider starting something else or just browse HN for a while if I just need wait something like 10 or 15 minutes.

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

#240

Post by drran »

hobbescotch wrote: post #229
shakaijin wrote: post #177

I have been noticing the impact of excessive multitasking on myself lately, and I am now actively trying to avoid it. At first i thought that multitasking would increase my overall efficiency by filling in gaps of downtime in certain tasks, but it soon turned me into a person incapable of focusing on anything deeply. One day, I noticed that I am unable to read a book the same way i did as a child (cover to cover in o…

I struggle with how to handle this at work. I am a data engineer and while writing new scripts to pull data, the testing process sometimes involves waiting 15 mins to an hour (or more) for all the data to pull. Some times I'll start a new task in the middle of the pull or, if I expect it'll only be a few minutes, I'll flip out my phone. But once the data is finished pulling, I'll then need to jump back it and validat…

https://xkcd.com/303/
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