Ask HN: Has single-task focus become outdated in the AI era?

2 points by yura 44 days ago | 3 comments

I’ve always found that deep focusing on one task at a time was the only way to get things done at work with good quality and at an acceptable pace, and I have a real hard time multitasking (even with AI) because of context switching and getting distracted or overwhelmed.

But with AI making parallel work easier (in theory), is single-task focus now a disadvantage? Are effective engineers always running several threads at once, or is deep focus still the best way to get things done?

xlii 44 days ago |

It's possible to single task using Round Robin strategy.

Have a list of things you do, go one by one over them. If new task appears add at the loop "gap".

I found that the worst thing is chasing the bunny: Oh wow. This finished. I should chboing oh another agent that's probablboing... - completely unsustainable.

The loop is very similar to old way of things. You just don't pay attention to notifications. Also it's worth grouping loop to minimal że context switching or ease context switching (e.g. task on project a, task on project a+b, task on project b, task on project a+b, etc.)

In order to get to looping part I use self-approval modes for agents. It's slightly uncomfortable but I built own agents with own permission reviewers and they are quite good. These can be used to run agents in the background. And if you do a loop and find agent still spinning - it's a good moment to take a five for yourself.

The deep focus is still there but somewhere else. Usually in coordination and integration.

moxza 44 days ago |

Cal Newport talks about this in Deep Work. My key takeaway, not all jobs let you. As romantic as the CEO role is, they don't get to spend big blocks of time alone with their thoughts. They have to be on deck and directing whenever, wherever the flow of the business demands.

I feel like commanding a fleet of AI agents forces you into that kind of role. They get things done, but if you're not constantly checking up on them, the work isn't what it needs to be. Worse, it can turn out to be a big pile of tech debt.

I don't know what the answer is yet, it's both hard to keep up and work on my own terms. It's partly my own fault, I have a stack of PRs to review, merge and UAT. That's the deepwork stream now, but it's so tempting to just kick off another agent and have it flesh out something else from the backlog.

Redster 44 days ago |

No.