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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)

#171

Post by olyjohn »

lanstin wrote: post #159
nickphx wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it's not. To me, multi-tasking implies you're completing a task, you have a set goal in mind with a series of steps or focused work required to achieve the goal or end result of the task.

For me, there is a difference between the experience of sitting in a dark room and watching a movie and not doing anything else as opposed to watching a movie at home whilst reading things on the phone or looking up stuff in IMDB or pausing and making hot chocolate, etc. So even for entertainment, the experience and effects of more focused activities and less focused activities probably still merit investigation.

I have a friend who surfs the web and watches YouTube and TV shows in the background. I don't get how people can do that... I miss the whole show AND I don't take in anything I'm reading. It's a 100% wasted experience for me. I am pretty jealous that people can do that, but I wonder if they are getting anything out of it either.

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

#172

Post by olyjohn »

bredren wrote: post #161
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…

Could be generational, and it reminds me of when CNN added the scrolling news ticker to the bottom of all programs. It drove my grandpa nuts, and he literally taped paper over the bottom of his television screen so he could watch Larry King in peace. Now you watch some Minecraft PvP influencer’s YouTube channel and they can’t make a statement without running around playing the game while they do it.

Holy shit, CNN and Fox News. Nothing gets my anxiety up like those fucking 24 hour news channels. The one that really gets my goat is Fox, because 100% of the time there's a big red box on the screen that says ALERT. There's always a fucking alert, even when nothing is happening. It's like you turn it on and suddenly the entire world is on fire. All this spinning shit all over the screen and graphics flying around, people screaming at each other, 62 tickers on the screen showing you totally irrelevant information. No wonder people who watch these channels are so fucking anxious.

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

#173

Post by bonoboTP »

greshario wrote: post #153
29athrowaway wrote: post #147

> "That is why animals are incapable of contemplative immersion—either they are eating or they are copulating." I think there are many humans that fit into this description.

This guy has clearly never looked at an actual animal, like a dog dozing in the sun or a dolphin surfing along a wave for fun.

Right. Many predators only eat occasionally and then lie around doing nothing for days.

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

#174

Post by youmaylike »

Quekid5 wrote: post #150
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.

Agreed. It’s multitasking when you switch between tasks before reaching a natural stopping point.

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

#175

Post by SMAAART »

People misunderstand what multitasking is.

If you're downloading a huge file that takes 1 hour, don't just stand there watching, put a timer on, and go work on a different task.

If you're copying a huge document, don't just stand there, put a timer on and go d another task.

Learning to recognize processes that can be run in parallel is key, but it doesn't mean to do 2 things at ones; anything that requires some level of thinking can only be done single-tasking.

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

#177

Post by shakaijin »

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 one sitting for example), and it kind of shocked me. I now have a rule that i do one thing only, and start other tasks only when the previous task has been finished. This applies to both productive work (learning, programming etc.) and entertainment (YouTube, books etc.). I think that it is starting to help, but I feel like it will take time to undo the damage of years of bad multitasking.

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

#178

Post by BeFlatXIII »

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…

Have you noticed that your inability to just “read a book” differs by genre? I suffer from that with pretty much any fiction, but can still lose afternoons reading a well-written history or scientific explainer.

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

#179

Post by Aerroon »

>While more research is needed to determine if multitasking is physically damaging the brain (versus existing brain damage that predisposes people to multitask), it's clear that multitasking has negative effects.

The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in attention management and impulsivity.[0] This has been known for quite some time. It has even been observed that children with ADHD have thinning in (some parts of) the anterior cingulate cortex.[1] It seems like quite a stretch to exclaim that multitasking itself causes that. It's obviously not impossible, but seems implausible - at least implausible enough to not make it a separate paragraph in a short article.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC53241/

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23713508/

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

#180

Post by ddingus »

lozaning wrote: post #167
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…

Two things having very high priority means really, neither are. I've reminded many a manager of this in the past.

Exactly, the questions are always:

Which is it?

What is worth what?

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