Originally Posted by
Dave Mayer
Anyone who thinks that they can do more than one thing at a time is kidding themselves. Such as listen to music and ride. Or study and listen to music. Or work and listen to music. What the attempted multi-taskers are doing is just dividing their consciousness into little slivers, and the jumping around between these tasks consumes mental resources that simply slows you down and/or makes you sloppy.
I despair when I see my nieces trying to study math while watching TV, text messaging, listening to music and 'net browsing. I fear that coming generations will be so ADD that they will be unable to do anything that requires deep thinking or a long-term commitment. How this generation will be able to grind through something as tedious but important as the 'Origin of Species', (never mind write something like this), I cannot fathom...
The only way to do one thing really well (or safely) is total focus. Focus is the wrong word, in that if you are spending mental resources on *trying* to focus on riding, then your focus is not on the riding.
I've been riding safely on the road for 45 years. But every time I throw my leg over the top tube, I assume I am going to be squashed by a bus.
Riding safely is a Zen thing.
So you never drive a car with any music playing? You never eat while watching TV? You never do X while doing Y?
As Jim said, (relative) silence can be deafening. I can absolutely focus better on studies with some type of ambient background noise, preferably music. I like to have music with almost any activity, be it yard work, or doing mechanic work on my car or bicycle. Helps me get into the groove of things.
How about an 8-10 hour road trip? The silence would be absolutely maddening with no music at all. And actually the constant drone of road noise can be downright dangerous. Better to break it up with something like music.
I rode home from work yesterday in "lightweight" mode, i.e. no trunk bag or panniers, which also meant no music. It was fine. But in the mornings especially I like to have my BT speaker playing as it breaks up the monotony and helps my 70-75 minute commute not seem quite so long.