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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)

#241

Post by sdeframond »

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?

As for jogging, I think it depends on your goals but I generally wouldn't recommend listening to music or podcasts.

Instead, try to focus on yourself, your sensations, the smoothness/effectivness of your stride, cadence and so on. There is actually plenty to keep your brain busy.

It will help prevent injuries and make you a better runner.

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

#242

Post by selfhoster11 »

papito wrote: post #223
mvanaltvorst wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if brain structures of children are getting wired differently to better accommodate for multitasking in the modern Information Age. I would imagine that if you multitask all day, your brain would adapt to do this context switching more effortlessly, probably at the cost of something else that the brain judges as less important. Not saying that that's a bad thing, I'm just curious.

I doubt it. We have known for a while that the brain is not multithreaded. The kids that can focus - they are the ones that will lead, build, and succeed. It's amazing what you can achieve in a short period of time with a quieted down brain.

While I agree with the part about the brain not being multithreaded, I cannot agree with the rest. Leading, building and succeeding doesn't seem like something that is predicated on the ability to focus.

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

#243

Post by Siira »

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…

> flow state

This terminology means you are completely focused on the task you're doing, forgetting other distractions. I don't think it applies here.

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

#244

Post by selfhoster11 »

trhway wrote: post #203
acituan wrote: post #129

Yet multitasking is still being branded as something of a higher cognitive functioning. Byung-Chul Han in The Burnout Society claims that it is the opposite: > “The attitude toward time and environment known as “multitasking’ does not represent civilisational progress. Human beings in the late-modern society of work and information are not the only ones capable of multitasking. Rather, such an aptitude amounts to reg…

>multitasking is still being branded as something of a higher cognitive functioning. not surprisingly given that it is branded that way by the "multitaskers". I mean you wouldn't find many deep contemplative thinkers at the mid- or top-level of corporations or even of the whole society. These days the ability to deep contemplative thinking is more like a handicap relegating you into the rank-and-file.

I disagree. Multitasking is starting to be seen as what it actually is. If you're managing well, you'll at the very least be familiar with the doubt around humans being capable of multitasking effectively.

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

#245

Post by selfhoster11 »

LZ_Khan wrote: post #43

Genuine question then.. how are we supposed to function properly as software engineers, especially in jobs with long feedback loops? The nature of my job is that I'm almost more of a train conductor than a software engineer. I configure a job, run it, then wait for 10-30 minutes to get the results. I do this for maybe 5 jobs at a time, on 5 different projects. Naturally I feel a lot of stress and cognitive burden whi…

Thank you for putting this into words. It's crazy how normalised it is to have long feedback loops, when we're working on interactive computers rather than punch cards.

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

#247

Post by shoto_io »

varjag wrote: post #227
shoto_io wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Cooking and talking is multitasking if you make an elaborate dish requiring skill and focus. It isn't otherwise. Listening and jogging isn't, unless you struggle with some serious mobility impediment. Sitting in a meeting is very rarely a cognitively challenging task as well.

Sure sitting alone is not, but what about listening and taking notes?

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

#248

Post by [deleted] »

shoto_io wrote: post #247
varjag wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cooking and talking is multitasking if you make an elaborate dish requiring skill and focus. It isn't otherwise. Listening and jogging isn't, unless you struggle with some serious mobility impediment. Sitting in a meeting is very rarely a cognitively challenging task as well.

Sure sitting alone is not, but what about listening and taking notes?

[deleted]

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

#250

Post by croo »

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?

Multitasking is more like beeing in two meeting simultaneously and taking notes on both, writing a functional specification for a project while talking to your spouse about the weekly shopping list, talking with your coworker about a problem in a codebase while you work in _another_ codebase, trying to fix a production server while watching for cars on the road your kids are playing...
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