Had to submit this one because I've spent an inordinate amount of time over the years trying to explain to IT managers that multi-tasking is not all its cracked up to be. Of course, in software development and bioinformatics in particular, sometimes there are tasks that involve clicking a button and waiting a few hours, or even days. During this downtime it makes perfect sense to switch workspaces do something else, then come back when your job is finished running.
However the notion that one can actually work on multiple programming projects simultaneously is absurd. I had a lead dev in a bioinfo company who would constantly report in the SCRUM (agile is garbage on its own level, dont get me started on that mess) that he was doing this and that task "at the same time." I always got a chuckle out of that... as if he was typing on two keyboards at once. Human brains simply do not work that way. We can't code on two projects at the same time any more than you can read two books at once... no matter how smart lead dev wants to appear, it's just not gona happen.
You just have to break down the multitasking paradigm into a childlike example they can understand - Is it faster for me to cut one board and nail it in place and then drive across town and do the same on another house and then return to the original site and do one more board and so on until I'm done? Or is it faster for me to just frame out one house and then go frame the next one without wasting hours driving every day? Those hours of driving every day are context switching and it kills flow, which is what you need to work efficiently.
Good analogy. You might assume that IT managers would grasp this logic, but sadly many of them don't, or pretend not to. Many times in my experience it's the latter- they use psychological gaslighting techniques (such as pretending not to understand why every task can't simultaneously be top priority) in an attempt to light a fire under your ass and get you to agree to unreasonable deadlines. Some of them are genuinely insane or incompetent though. Qualified managers and project leads are a rarity.
You might assume that IT managers would grasp this logic, but sadly many of them don't,
Managers pretend that they understand what they are doing. It is their little helpers that does the real things. Also mangers will not admit to other managers that they have no clue what these hype words even mean. They will clap and cheer to the power-point presentation about AGILE as the next best thing like sliced bread.
The success or failure to these managers is how much they slow down their little helpers.
Observe how they start to panic when these methodologies disrupts the happiness of their little helpers and they start to fight each other because projects starts to fail.
Absolutely depends what I'm doing. I multitask like a boss if I'm doing admin / paper pushing / organisation stuff. If I'm coding or designing then hell no, it takes me half a day to get my head properly into a task if I haven't worked on it for a while. Do one thing, do it well, finish it, do the next thing.
7 comments
8 u/meowski [OP] 17 Jan 2017 02:27
Had to submit this one because I've spent an inordinate amount of time over the years trying to explain to IT managers that multi-tasking is not all its cracked up to be. Of course, in software development and bioinformatics in particular, sometimes there are tasks that involve clicking a button and waiting a few hours, or even days. During this downtime it makes perfect sense to switch workspaces do something else, then come back when your job is finished running. However the notion that one can actually work on multiple programming projects simultaneously is absurd. I had a lead dev in a bioinfo company who would constantly report in the SCRUM (agile is garbage on its own level, dont get me started on that mess) that he was doing this and that task "at the same time." I always got a chuckle out of that... as if he was typing on two keyboards at once. Human brains simply do not work that way. We can't code on two projects at the same time any more than you can read two books at once... no matter how smart lead dev wants to appear, it's just not gona happen.
2 u/ForgotMyName 17 Jan 2017 20:32
You just have to break down the multitasking paradigm into a childlike example they can understand - Is it faster for me to cut one board and nail it in place and then drive across town and do the same on another house and then return to the original site and do one more board and so on until I'm done? Or is it faster for me to just frame out one house and then go frame the next one without wasting hours driving every day? Those hours of driving every day are context switching and it kills flow, which is what you need to work efficiently.
1 u/meowski [OP] 17 Jan 2017 21:45
Good analogy. You might assume that IT managers would grasp this logic, but sadly many of them don't, or pretend not to. Many times in my experience it's the latter- they use psychological gaslighting techniques (such as pretending not to understand why every task can't simultaneously be top priority) in an attempt to light a fire under your ass and get you to agree to unreasonable deadlines. Some of them are genuinely insane or incompetent though. Qualified managers and project leads are a rarity.
0 u/roznak 17 Jan 2017 21:56
Managers pretend that they understand what they are doing. It is their little helpers that does the real things. Also mangers will not admit to other managers that they have no clue what these hype words even mean. They will clap and cheer to the power-point presentation about AGILE as the next best thing like sliced bread.
The success or failure to these managers is how much they slow down their little helpers.
Observe how they start to panic when these methodologies disrupts the happiness of their little helpers and they start to fight each other because projects starts to fail.
6 u/DickHertz 17 Jan 2017 05:53
Context switching is expensive.
3 u/tame 17 Jan 2017 02:55
Absolutely depends what I'm doing. I multitask like a boss if I'm doing admin / paper pushing / organisation stuff. If I'm coding or designing then hell no, it takes me half a day to get my head properly into a task if I haven't worked on it for a while. Do one thing, do it well, finish it, do the next thing.
1 u/saintPirelli 17 Jan 2017 06:28
I'm guilty of doing this and most of the symptoms described fit me, thanks for sharing, you might have just impacted my life for the better.