
When There’s an Audience, People’s Performance Improves - spking
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/when_theres_an_audience_peoples_performance_improves
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lambdasquirrel
The research on this is not new, and it’s not as simple as this. If you give
people a task that’s well-rehearsed for them, that they’re good at, they’ll
tend to do better. But if you give them something less well-rehearsed,
something that’s “hard,” they do worse. I wish I had my psychology textbooks
on hand for the references, but a lot of this stuff isn’t obvious until after-
the-fact.

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tokyodude
Is it that simple? It certainly does not fit my experience. I type code for a
living and have for 30 years so I'm clearly well rehearsed but I can't type
well when being looked at.

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stinos
This is psychology, there are always exceptions. Personally I don't have
problems with the act of typing when being looked at, but I do have a tendency
to get nervous to the point I'm having trouble speaking. Only happens with
crowds I'm not familiar with though. But I know enough of sociolog/psychology
to realize that doesn't mean any of the claims made here are false for the
general public, or even for me in certain situations. I do have the
impressions I'm sometimes better in sports when people are watching and/or
cheering.

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CM30
Interesting results, though I do wonder if this may be one of those situations
where the results depend significantly on the individual and their
personality.

Don't like to use anecdotes, but still... I'm definitely someone who has a
breakdown whenever having to do something with the possibility of an audience,
let alone a live one. Fine doing something off camera, completely screw up
whenever a capture card or camers is anyway in the vicinity (and hence end up
having to throw out tons of failed recordings).

~~~
rdlecler1
There’s actually a gene associated with this very thing.

~~~
rdlecler1
How in the world did this get downvoted?

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Rotdhizon
I don't fully agree with the article. As someone who has gamed in front of
many audiences before, it can absolutely make you screw up. Specifically when
it mentions performing well in front of an audience acting as sort of a mental
stimulant for reward. I think it also depends heavily on where the audience
is. If I'm in say a room with just my team and sound proof headphones, you are
way more focused and play more like you normally would. If someone is standing
over your shoulder, you start to do things you wouldn't normally do, whether
it be to speed up the match to not bore the observer, to try an hit a cool
shot, etc. The nature of the action being done has to be one of the most
influential factors. In a gaming environment where no two matches are ever the
same, you can't go off of rehearsed actions because they won't work in all
scenarios. Therefor, when in new situations where you're trying to adapt on
the fly, that's when you start trying to get fancy for the audience and
ultimately make sloppy mistakes. However, if it were something that you can
use rehearsed actions on, like coding, then the pressure might not be as
intense as to make you mess up.

~~~
idle_processor
> In a gaming environment where no two matches are ever the same, you can't go
> off of rehearsed actions because they won't work in all scenarios.

Even with routine muscle-memory tasks like combos in fighting games,
"tournament nerves" are blamed for errors.

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blakesterz
I wonder, could this apply to open source? Do we build better code if it's
open source because it has more of an audience?

~~~
combatentropy
I saw it happen to me. At work I wrote some libraries, which would be seen by
just a couple of coworkers, and I thought I worked hard on them. Years later I
wrote a small JavaScript function to put on Github, and I just couldn't leave
it alone, cleaning it up, tweaking it here and there, knowing that smart
people from all around the world might see it and judge me by it.

~~~
bajablast
Half of my personal projects are set as private because I am afraid the code
is not worthy

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rmrm
Basically about 75% of being a manager. To be an audience.

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exabrial
On guitar, it's only if I practiced first :D otherwise it seems to have the
opposite effect

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dizzystar
I think I bombed the first 10 times I was on stage.

~~~
exabrial
On a semi-related note... I started a new instrument this year... I've been
taking a video every week. My first video is absolutely hilarious. This method
is really encouraging, it's really easy to see progress

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osrec
I'm a reasonable tennis player. I've noticed, if someone's watching
(especially an attractive girl), my effort and concentration seems to
increase. Sometimes this results in me playing out of my skin and hitting
shots I didn't even know I could make! Same with snooker, at which I'm
distinctly average. If someone's watching, I've often knocked in a pot from 3
meters away, but in practice, it's a shot I'd make 1 out of 50 times. Strange!

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mvdwoord
Reminds me of this (awesome) song..

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=SoCn9HBvlJM](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SoCn9HBvlJM)

I can't play 'cause I need a reason

No one here that I aim to pleasin'

There's a joint next door and I hate to barge in

But I play better with girls watchin'

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jdavis703
I've noticed this in real life. If I run in the city I push myself harder than
if I run in a more remote park. Further if I run in the city along a route
popular with other runners I'll run even harder (the stats provided by my
running app also backs this perception up).

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HillaryBriss
On the one hand, writing code on a white board in an interview should be
easier, because I have an audience.

On the other hand, I don't normally write code on a white board and I rely on
the IDE to correct my syntax (and other) mistakes. So white board coding is a
more complex task than my normal coding. So white board coding is harder and I
do it more poorly.

On the other hand, if nothing is at stake, if it's just a friendly discussion
about how to do something, among friends, I'm less nervous and it's more fun.

But if a potential job is on the line and I'm in front of strangers, it's more
stressful and my performance suffers.

I don't know. What's the biggest effect?

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everdev
With people working remotely and companies abandoning open floor plans, I
think a lot of people might disagree. Privacy seems to increase productivity
through lower distractions and stress, at least for me.

~~~
combatentropy
I think the more important audience for programmers isn't those who see your
face but those who see your code.

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beagle3
Related:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect)
from the early 1930s

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CodeArtisan
There are people who live stream their coding sessions on twitch/youtube. Here
one talking about it (linked to the relevant part):

[http://meow.noopkat.com/lessons-from-one-year-of-
streaming-o...](http://meow.noopkat.com/lessons-from-one-year-of-streaming-on-
twitch/#awkwardness)

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goldfeld
It may still take time for people's notion of performance to gravitate to
literal creative energy and to how the audience contributes and co-creates
anything on a stage. In pragmatic artistic theories it's an obvious fact and
art impossible without this idea.

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salutonmundo
Possibly related: when you have difficulty being self-motivated.

When you have a deadline, at which time someone will look over your work, it's
similar to having an audience.

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sedatk
i think this is a strong case in favor of pair programming.

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jgalt212
Is this also the case in the boudoir?

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groman2
... they clearly did not have people type simple things into a computer with
somebody standing over their shoulder.

