Every Bit Counts

Introduction

Formula One teams are famous for pushing the limits of speed, engineering, and human performance. But one of McLaren’s most intriguing strategies isn’t on the track - it’s how they replicate their home office at every race.

At first glance, this might seem like a logistical flex or a quirky tradition. But it reveals something much deeper: a practical understanding of the limits of the human brain’s capacity of cognitive control.

It’s a brilliant example of something far more universal - the power of managing for maximum utilization of the capacity of cognitive control. And it holds some surprising lessons for how software teams can work smarter, faster, and more creatively.

The Science Behind Familiar Spaces

Cognitive control is the brain’s ability to focus, prioritize, and manage mental resources to focus on relevant information while suppressing distractions. It’s what allows an engineer to monitor dozens of live data streams or a strategist to make second-by-second decisions under pressure.

But there’s a catch: this control operates at a remarkably low bandwidth - around 3 to 4 bits per second. In other words, cognitive control is scarce.

To understand how little that is, consider that 1 bit of information is enough to answer a single binary question - a dilemma that can be resolved with a simple yes or no, or option A or option B.

Take driving as an example. One of the first decisions a driver must make in a new country is,: “Which side of the road should I drive on?” In most countries, the answer is “right side,” while in the UK, India, and Japan, it’s the left.

If that rule isn’t clear or if it changes depending on context then your brain has to spend 1 bit of its limited cognitive capacity just to resolve that dilemma. But when the rule is established and well understood, that bit is spared. Your cognitive control can then be spent on more important tasks: reading the road, anticipating hazards, or responding to unexpected changes.

When your environment is unpredictable, your brain spends precious capacity just figuring out where things are or how to access the tools you need. That’s capacity lost - bits burned, before you even get to the work that matters. Since it's severely bandwidth-limited, the brain can easily be overwhelmed when the environment introduces too much information or uncertainty.

When familiar rules and routines answer the binary questions in our environment for us, we’re left with more capacity to handle complexity and make better decisions under pressure.

This is the power of predictability:: it doesn’t just reduce stress - it preserves bandwidth. And in high-performance environments, every bit counts.

How McLaren Designs for Cognitive Efficiency

In Formula 1, where decisions are time-critical, high-stakes, and based on massive streams of information, this limitation is extremely relevant.

McLaren’s solution to the chaos of race weekends? Make every race weekend feel like home.

For each Grand Prix, the team ships and assembles a mobile operations center that mirrors the look, feel, and layout of their headquarters in Woking. From the lighting and desks to the displays and workflows, everything is exactly where it should be.

This isn’t just about comfort. By replicating the home office at each race, McLaren:

Reduces novelty and unpredictability in the physical workspace.
Minimizes the cognitive load of adjusting to a new environment.
]Frees up mental resources to focus on race strategy, data interpretation, and rapid decision-making.
Leverages familiar spatial cues and routines to boost working memory efficiency and attention control.

It's essentially about eliminating unnecessary cognitive load so that the limited bandwidth of cognitive control is spent on what really matters: performance under pressure.

Engineers and strategists don’t have to waste cognitive effort figuring out where to sit, how to communicate, or which screen shows what. Their limited capacity of cognitive control stays focused on analyzing data, making decisions, and responding to the chaos of a live race.

Just like a driver who already knows which side of the road to use, McLaren's team doesn’t spend precious mental energy resolving basic logistics - they’ve already answered those 1-bit questions. That saved capacity goes straight into real-time analysis, communication, and performance.

High-Performance Environments Start with Design

This approach reflects a powerful insight:

When high-performance cognitive control is needed, reduce novelty and decision fatigue by making the environment as familiar, predictable, and structured as possible..

The implications go beyond racing. From emergency rooms to military operations to product development teams when people need to think clearly and act fast, structure and predictability are performance enhancers.

Predictability as the Foundation of True Efficiency in Software Development

This idea translates beautifully to software teams. In software development structure and predictability can dramatically enhance efficiency and performance.

Predictability helps - and in knowledge work, predictability means efficiency. Why? Because true efficiency isn’t just about doing things faster; it’s about aligning a team’s skills with the knowledge required to create real value.

In software development, that required knowledge includes familiar tools, clear workflows, and well-defined communication protocols. When these elements are stable and predictable, teams aren’t bogged down by context-switching, searching for information, or reinventing coordination patterns. When engineers and product teams operate in environments with familiar tools, clear workflows, and well-defined communication protocols, they reduce the cognitive effort spent navigating unnecessary uncertainty. That frees up their limited cognitive control capacity to focus on solving complex problems, writing reliable code, or making smart trade-offs under pressure.

Just like a race team doesn’t want to guess where the telemetry screen is during a pit stop, developers shouldn’t have to wonder which Slack channel to post a deployment issue in or how to reach another team. The more cognitive load we offload to automated tools, predictable systems and environments, the more bandwidth we leave for creativity, focus, and execution.

This is the deeper meaning of efficiency in knowledge work:

It’s not about squeezing out more tasks per hour. It’s about creating an environment where the team’s potential can expand—where creativity has room to breathe and smart decisions aren’t constrained by noise or uncertainty.

In high-performance software teams, efficiency isn’t bureaucracy - it’s cognitive optimization.

Once again, it’s like driving on a clearly marked road in a country with consistent traffic laws - you’re not expending bits trying to figure out what’s allowed. You’re using that freed-up bandwidth to go further, faster, and more safely.

When you manage for predictability, you're managing for cognitive load. And when cognitive load is reduced, efficiency rises—not just in speed, but in possibility. Teams not only move faster—they think better, collaborate better, and grow stronger.

What Undermines Efficiency in Knowledge Work

If efficiency in knowledge work is about aligning a team’s skills with the knowledge required to create value, then anything that disrupts access to that knowledge introduces friction - and slows teams down.

This required knowledge isn’t just technical; it includes knowing how things are done, who to talk to, and what tools to use. When these elements are unclear or unpredictable, teams spend cognitive resources just trying to orient themselves. Here are some common culprits that sap efficiency by increasing cognitive load:

Unexplained acronyms and jargon: Require prior context and often exclude newer team members or collaborators, leading to confusion or rework
Unfamiliar tools or constantly changing toolchains: Divert energy into learning how to work rather than doing the work itself.
Inconsistent workflows: When processes vary by project or team, it creates uncertainty about expectations and next steps.
Unclear communication protocols: Not knowing whether to use Slack, email, a ticketing system—or when and how to escalate—slows down collaboration.
Poor documentation or tribal knowledge: When vital information is hidden, outdated, or lives only in people’s heads, ramp-up time increases and mistakes become more likely.
Ambiguous roles and responsibilities: When ownership isn’t clear, work gets duplicated, delayed, or dropped altogether.
Frequent context switching: Splitting attention across tasks without clear priorities undermines focus and reduces the quality of deep work.
Unpredictable schedules or meeting routines: Irregular standups, last-minute calls, or shifting agendas make it hard to get into a productive rhythm.
Unstable or shifting priorities: Constantly changing what matters most undermines confidence and makes it hard to deliver lasting value.
Lack of shared mental models: When team members don’t have a common understanding of the goals, architecture, or trade-offs, alignment breaks down and inefficiencies multiply.

Each of these issues is like throwing a driver onto a road without clear markings, wondering at every intersection what the rule might be. Those extra decisions burn bits. And in knowledge work, where every bit counts, that added friction is a tax on performance.

The more these friction points accumulate, the more cognitive bandwidth is spent just trying to stay oriented - leaving less room for focus, creativity, and effective execution.

Design for Flow, Not Just Speed

When we think about efficiency in knowledge work, we often think in terms of speed. But the real opportunity lies in expanding potential.

A predictable environment creates the cognitive space needed for teams to operate with confidence, depth, and clarity. It empowers better decisions, faster feedback loops, and more creative problem-solving.

Efficiency, in this sense, is not bureaucracy. It’s a deliberate design choice—a platform for growth.

In the End, Every Bit Counts

McLaren doesn’t recreate their headquarters at every race because it’s convenient. They do it because they understand something many teams miss: that performance doesn’t just come from pushing harder - it comes from designing smarter.

It reminds us that sometimes, the best way to boost performance isn’t more training or faster tools. It’s about creating an environment that respects the limited capacity of the human brain and designs around them.

By managing cognitive load and preserving bandwidth, they give their team the clarity and consistency to focus on what really matters.

Whether you're building cars or shipping code, the lesson is the same: Every bit of clarity you create makes room for better performance.

Reference

1. Wu, T., Dufford, A. J., Mackie, M. A., Egan, L. J., & Fan, J. (2016). The Capacity of Cognitive Control Estimated from a Perceptual Decision Making Task. Scientific Reports, 6, 34025.

2. Zheng, J., & Meister, M. (2024). The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s?. Neuron.