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Comment by edoo | Hacker News Reader

This feels like someone discovered that multitasking doesn't really work (some studies show it causes brain damage). I've grown to hate multitasking. Do not try to design your project while building it. Do not try to understand what it is supposed to do while debugging it. Separate all things, focus on them individually. I've found without effort it is easy to find yourself working on several tasks at the same time that would each be completed much faster if focused on one at a time.

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Don Knuth has the right idea; he batches all tasks. However, we don't all have the luxury of working at our own pace.

I believe Knuth worked at his own pace before he had the luxury to do so. That is: if you’re doing great work other things will matter much less. But it’s a gamble and Knuth’s version of “working as his own pace” probably means working harder than most people.

> some studies show it causes brain damage

What? That can't be true, are you sure?

This is what I can gather from skimming some articles in a lazy research attempt:

* Almost all evidence shows multitasking is not actually possible

* Some evidence shows attempting to do so anyway results in IQ reduction and loss of ability to focus

* Some evidence shows this reduction lasts even after you are done

* Some evidence shows this reduction is due to permanent physiological changes in the brain

'Brain damage' might be going to far.

I can have a conversation with someone while driving a car. Is that not multitasking?

To anticipate an objection, I would agree that the competence of both tasks diminishes somewhat. However the overall competence of both is sufficient.

My brain also seems capable of detecting when more attention is required, and automatically stopping the lower priority task. For example, if I had to quickly merge across many lanes on a busy freeway, then I would likely cease conversation during that maneuver. I don’t have to think too much about this consciously. The brain understands that driving is paramount and it will automatically preempt anything lower priority when more cognitive attention is required.

I would be interested to know what the research says about phenomena like that. There must be research like this supporting aviation, space flight, and nautical activities.

It seems easiest to multitask across different modes, e.g., I can work with my hands or drive a car while listening to an audiobook. I can have a social conversation with friends over voice chat while playing a video game.

Maybe the degree to which you can multitask depends upon the type of task and to what extent your brain can perform it automatically. The rote tasks involved in driving for example require very little attention to perform safely and correctly.

I think the idea is that the neocortex doesn't multitask. So you can talk and drive a car but not talk and learn abstract algebra.

Yes, I had a lot of similar questions. Maybe 'task' is a misnomer? Maybe it's context switching that is the issue. Like talking and driving and having music playing in the background all exist in the same context of operating a vehicle. Just like using a calculator, reading a textbook and writing in a notebook are all different tasks you switch between to study, but are all in the same context of studying.

Side note, Wikipedia claims you can multitask between tasks you are already highly proficient at.

>Some Evidence

Obviously the studies aren't definitive, but if they were and multitasking caused me to be less intelligent and less able to focus due to "permanent physiological changes in the brain", I would consider my brain to be damaged regardless of whether it meets the literal medical definition of brain damage.

If one is free to ignore or alter the definition of anything, then one could consider anything to be anything one wants.

But I get what you mean. We can only hope that permanent means permanent if you don't do anything to reverse it like being overweight.

There's a phrase for that. "not permanent."

There's a word for that!

Impermanent.

A study by the University of Sussex found that multitasking (specifically, consuming multiple media sources at the same time) is _associated_ with reduced density in the grey matter of the part of the brain associated with empathy, cognitive control and control over emotions.

The study doesn't say whether one thing causes the other.

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/50361/

>The questionnaire consisted of two main sections: The first section listed 12 common media types and participants reported the total number of hours per week they spent using each medium. In the modified version used in the present study, 10 media types were retained from [2]: Print media, television, computer-based video, music, voice calls using mobile or telephone, instant messaging, Short Messaging Service (SMS) messaging, Email, web surfing and other computer-based applications. The item ‘‘video or computer games’’ was modified to include games on mobile phones. The item ‘‘non-music audio’’ was replaced with ‘‘using social networking sites’’. The changes were made to better reflect current trends in media consumption. The second section consisted of a matrix that involved participants indicating how much they concurrently used all the other types of medium as they used a primary medium. Amount of concurrent use was indicated on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 = ‘‘Never’’, 2 = ‘‘A little of the time’’, 3 = ‘‘Some of the time’’ and 4 = ‘‘Most of the time’’). The participants’ responses were first recoded as follows: ‘‘Never’’ = 0, ‘‘A little of the time’’ = 0.33, ‘‘Some of the time’’ = 0.67 and ‘‘Most of the time’’ = 1.

This seems like a bit of a silly study to me. It would be incredibly difficult for anyone in the software sector to say they aren't multitasking considering what they consider to be multitasking. I would be willing to bet most people use some forms of that concurrently, whether it's dealing with emails while in a web meeting or listening to music while coding.

FWIW I don’t do any of what you describe as a matter of normal practice.

Sometimes I will listen to a podcast while doing a routine task.

Otherwise I don’t multitask at all, for at least 90% of my working hours.

You never have a browser open with documentation/stackoverflow etc while coding?

Or checking and responding to emails while in the middle of fixing a bug?

Or managing texts from family members while doing whatever else on your PC?

Sometimes I stop coding and go look something up because I am stuck. At that point I’m doing a different activity: I’m research/learning/generally frustrated and not really coding.

For the others you bring up, I truly do not. I don’t text or email while I’m trying to do something productive.

This article sites Stanford:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/10/08/mult...

Isn’t that anything we do is actually always multitasking, coding - you use your fingers to type and brain to think what to type and at the same time you are thinking about why you are typing that.

No.

Why not? Parent raises a good point, how do we define a single task?

If you are playing one melody with your left hand on the piano and one with your right, is that one task or two?

We don't have a definitive diagram of the mind to point to, but I feel we all really can feel what is and what isn't multitasking.

Once internalized through experience, hand movements on piano (or computer) keyboard are subconscious. They don't tax your brain. Thinking about what you're playing/writing and why are you doing it is still within one "context of execution". They are closely related mental activities sharing most of the same data. Starting to simultaneously think about or engage in an unrelated, cognitively demanding activity - this is multitasking, or the so-called "context switch".

Because everything but the executive task flow is being handled via processes known as automaticity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaticity

I absolutely can't multitask: I can't drive properly and talk (I can do it, but my driving isn't good). I could never talk and play piano, nor even sing along as I played (I don't have opportunity to play anymore).

I can however talk and type, but it's done in a way where I fill a mental register with the sentence I'm typing, switch focus whilst my hands operate on that register; then fill the register in a pause from the conversation. It's just rapid task switching for me except the typing. Probably took me a decade of touch typing to get there.

I'm also I've of those people who ends up writing down the conversation if I'm handwriting and conversing.

-- reflecting now when playing piano I'd try and fill a mental register with the forthcoming musical phrase whilst I switched to speaking. I think perhaps it didn't work because I struggle with rhythm and so need central focus to maintain any semblance of rhythm.

> multitasking doesn't really work (some studies show it causes brain damage).

Haha, whaaaaat!?

Would love to see some links, that's crazy!

What you really seem to be getting at is the importance of planning—which I agree with wholeheartedly. Do your homework before trying to write a half-baked implementation and then backtracking when it doesn’t work.

All humans are different - psychologically. So, same psychological trick may not work with everyone.

& sometimes, it also depends on the type of work

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