Sendhil Mullainathan Quotes

Experts say you can't concentrate on more than one task at a time.

Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

Even though we think we're getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.

Multitasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.

It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

I think people who multitask pay a huge price. They think they're being extra productive, and I think when you multitask so much you don't have time to think about anything deeply, you are giving the world an advantage you shouldn't do, and practically everybody is drifting into that mistake.

We used to think that you could pay attention to five to nine things at a time. We now know that's not true. That's a crazy overestimate. The conscious mind can attend to about three things at once. Trying to juggle any more than that, and you're going to lose some brainpower.

I think that we get so distracted with our smartphones... It takes your body and your brain time to switch between tasks. If we can focus on what we're doing, we'll be more productive at that task.

You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you?

In effect, dividing your attention means that neither (or none) of the things you're working on is really getting the full effect of your intelligence, and that it in the end takes you longer than it would if you did one thing at a time.

Most of us can easily do two things at once; what's all but impossible is to do one thing at once.

If someone around you is multitasking, you pick up distraction like second-hand smoke.

You'd think people would realize they're bad at multitasking and would quit. But a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great.

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

You can't work on 15 problems at the same time.

Thinking is hard work. One can't bear burdens and ideas at the same time.

People only have so much attention.

I'll always be working on five things at once, usually with those documents open at the same time because if I get stuck somewhere I'll jump over to something else. That's how my head has always worked.

While you're writing, you can't concentrate nearly as well on what the speaker is saying.

I used to listen to 'Woman's Hour' every morning, but I've discovered that I can't have words on when I'm working.

What it turns out is that we think we're multitasking, but we're not. The brain is sequential tasking: we flit from one thought to the next very, very rapidly, giving us the illusion that what we're doing is doing all these things at once.

The conscious mind can only pay attention to about four things at once. If you've got these nagging voices in your head telling you to remember to pick up the laundry and call so-and-so, they're competing in your brain for neural resources with the stuff you're actually trying to do, like getting your work done.

I can multitask very well. But I know exactly when to block off anything coming in from the outside and just stay focused on the film.