The Diminishing Returns of Multitasking | Hacker News Reader

The Diminishing Returns of Multitasking

tebanvargas.com

36 pointsbaristaGeek11 comments

A few weeks ago, when I was struggling with focusing, HNers had a lot of advice which I tried to take, including to try out the pomodoro technique (set a timer for a task, give yourself a break at the end of it). Others also suggested setting a timer for a task and sticking to it, or creating a work plan for the day.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11804035

After two weeks of using it that technique, I found the number of hours I've spent on working, both on projects and on hobbies increased by 6x. Even my weekends feel a lot more productive in terms of getting certain fun project I want done. And I reduced the number of hours on social media, YouTube, and gaming. I also spent more time calming my brain through meditation and spent a little less time on the computer.

I think a big part of all this is being very concerted in not allowing certain work times to be interrupted by e-mail/Slack/text or random thoughts that pop in my head ("Hey, I feel like going on Reddit/YouTube!"). And the fact that I was creating a structure where none existed before.

Subsequently, because I worked longer hours, I got tired more easily in the evening. So I ended up sleeping earlier and waking up at a regular time.

And then I never considered perceiving self-discipline as a muscle (as others mentioned in that comment thread), but by creating more structure via the pomodoro technique and just believing that keeping that focus could make it easier in the long run, I have definitely found it easier to keep true to my work hours even when I hit a road block.

Smith makes this exact same point in Book I of The Wealth of Nations.

"[...] the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another, is much greater than we should at first view be apt to imagine it. It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to another; that is carried on in a different place, and with quite different tools. A country weaver, who cultivates a small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passing from his loom to the field, and from the field to his loom. When the two trades can be carried on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is no doubt much less. It is even in this case, however, very considerable. A man commonly saunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of employment to another. When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles than applies to good purpose. The habit of sauntering and of indolent careless application, which is naturally, or rather necessarily acquired by every country workman who is obliged to change his work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his hand in twenty different ways almost every day of his life; renders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous application even on the most pressing occasions. Independent, therefore, of his deficiency in point of dexterity, this cause alone must always reduce considerably the quantity of work which he is capable of performing. " [0]

[0]: http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN1.html#B.I, Ch.1, Of the Division of Labor

Like any skill, some people will naturally be better than others, as an expression of Evolution. Those with an aptitude may find it beneficial, while others may find it torturous. Sometimes articles like these feel like they're written by the latter.

Capitalism specialized labor where it was cheaper - mass production. This has since been automated. Subject matter experts have always been valuable, but such diverse experience is hard to come by.

Moreso it's about having to wait for the technology. Waiting for the page to load. Waiting for the program to load. Waiting for the IDE to load. Waiting for 1 million FOR loops. And having something else to work on while you wait. Or just something to read, or watch. Maybe even for a personal project in an unrelated field, or just to be a more interesting person.

> A person who dominates a set of skills in both breadth and depth. In other words, this person possesses a lot of skills but excels in 1 exclusively.

Better to excel in all skills in the field than one exclusively. Even better to excel in a multitude of skills across numerous fields. But such diverse experience is, of course, hard to come by.

You can discuss the definition of multitasking: let us call it task switching until we can actually analyze properly what our brain is really doing. That said: I am very good at it; I get way more done than if I would focus. This is because of the nature of my work and the way I am (raised?). I can switch between a lot of things while keeping context including coding. I do notice this processs list has a maximum though: with 3-4 in depth project chats, 1-2 business chats, coding and browsing (the latter usually relating to all the former) I notice I am full. And I also notice that textual discourse is far less load than oral or oral+visual on task switching. If I do meetings in person or skype calls I basically get nothing done: it is slower and I cannot switch (a lot) because I miss things.

What things do you code?

Web, apps, embedded for work and for hobby apps, (toy) programming languages, games, retro assembly and Arduino hardware.

I think you should see different number of tabs/windows open for different problems.

There are things in you list that need communication with someone (web and apps - I'd wager they are underspecified). I think you do not need communication working on retro assembly.

I am working on IDE supporting two dirty old languages, VHDL and Verilog. I need three things opened: Visual Studio, PDF of standard under question and orthodox file manager [1] in the tests directory. Having internalized a great deal of VHDL, I do not need it's PDF opened too often. So, there are two things for me to work with: run tests in VS, occasionally look at problematic source code with OFM.

I also need a great deal of silence around me, otherwise I cannot concentrate deep enough to make good decisions and implementation of dirty old languages badly needs extremely good decisions.

[1] http://softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml

Thanks for the anecdote supporting my point.

An interesting read on the subject, although not exclusively focused on multi-tasking, mostly US-centric and at times a bit wordy, is "The Organized Mind" (https://amzn.com/0147516315) by Daniel J Levin, a professor in Psychology.

Among other things, he explains why multitasking seems rewarding: it "creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation".

Multitasking also enables point harvest in exams. Young you, and teachers too, will think its a given optimization to en force. Later you realize it has downsides.

While multi tasking is one of the great myths of our current age, the idea of focus is quite quickly catching up. Both, when pushed to the extreme, are different sides of the same coin.

For a long time computers the public where using also did not multi task, but you could still browse a website and chat with your friends and not notice the switching.

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