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Body Doubling

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Re: Body Doubling

#61

Post by munificent »

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was.

After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc.

I can't but think that so many of the malaises that people suffer today, which we ascribe as individual psychological problems, are really just a result of how profoundly lonely and isolating media consumption is. (The irony of posting this on the Internet is not lost on me.)

We are a tribal species. We need the company of others in our physical environment in order to feel safe and at home. Obviously, some amount of solitude is important too, but for a communal species like Homo sapiens, being alone or around strangers most of the day is the environmental equivalent of being in a desert with no shade.

Re: Body Doubling

#62

Post by munificent »

wardedVibe wrote: post #55

As someone with mild social anxiety, doing this results in greater distraction thinking about it than any gain from the actual process.

As someone who also has social anxiety, I suspect that it would be very difficult for us at first but if we pushed through that, it would not just help us be more productive, but also help with our social anxiety.

Re: Body Doubling

#64

Post by montecarl »

ilaksh wrote: post #58

The name seems like ridiculous marketing to me. Kind of like clickbait. I think more accurate would just be something like "silent work partners". It's also bizarre that people seem to think that having trouble concentrating for a significant period of time on something tedious means you have ADHD. It's not at all abnormal to struggle with this at times. It's really more extreme cases that should be considered ADHD.

It may sound like it, but the term is in common use. Google "body doubling" and you will see many articles on the topic in connection to ADD.

Re: Body Doubling

#65

Post by squokko »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

Not even just the neighbors and friends - people used to live in large family units with 10+ people per household. This meant a much broader support network if, for example, you got ill and couldn't take care of your kid for awhile.

Re: Body Doubling

#66

Post by atemerev »

ilaksh wrote: post #58

The name seems like ridiculous marketing to me. Kind of like clickbait. I think more accurate would just be something like "silent work partners". It's also bizarre that people seem to think that having trouble concentrating for a significant period of time on something tedious means you have ADHD. It's not at all abnormal to struggle with this at times. It's really more extreme cases that should be considered ADHD.

ADHD is not just "having trouble concentrating". It is a completely broken prioritizer, executive function deficit, and nearly non-existing ability to linearize tasks into intermediate-scale command sequences. And tons of other things, some of them good (like immediate recall of association trees, whether we like it or not; this helps if you want some original ideas), but most of them bad.

About 3% of population have ADHD. And it is quite easily recognizable and distinct from just "troubles of concentration".

Re: Body Doubling

#67

Post by 2devnull »

marshmallowmad wrote: post #57

I think this is the reason why in-person work environments will be more productive over the longer term for any larger organization. Not saying I’m against remote work, as I actually prefer it myself.

Seems like a pretty coarse level of analysis asking if “in-person” is better. What’s more productive for a manager will be different, maybe the exact opposite of what’s productive for a programmer. Some people get paid to talk, but many of us do not. The talking is paid for by our sacrifice of personal time, time spent with kids, or exercising or whatever. Managers, being decision makers, will push us back to offices because they benefit from it, because they are paid to talk. Something to be sensitive to, if you’re not already.

Re: Body Doubling

#68

Post by hammock »

criddell wrote: post #59
telesilla wrote: post #27

I finished my thesis thanks to a group of people scattered over the internet, all agreeing to do pomodoro. In the breaks we'd chat about our day to day lives then get back to work when the bell rang. I'll always be grateful for their presence, getting me through hard times when I'd perhaps have given up if I felt completely alone; or at least not worked so deeply and thoroughly.

It might be a good way to run an office. Define pomodoro blocks in which you cannot interrupt your coworkers. No slacks, texts, phone calls, or conversations until the cycle ends.

The old shift whistle

Re: Body Doubling

#69

Post by vorpalhex »

munificent wrote: post #61

There was a thread on Reddit recently asking what leisure time was like for people before radio, TV, and the Internet. Someone mentioned a memoir they'd read from the early 1900s and the part that stuck with them was how social everyone was. After work, people would go to friends houses, putter around town and catch up with neighbors, visit shops where they knew everyone, etc. I can't but think that so many of the ma…

As a reminder, you can still do those things. Have a weekly hangout day with friends with no firm plans. Spend time at hobbyist shops on the regular. Play board games with strangers.
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