Nah man, my normie wife cannot understand why I’ll have a podcast, audiobook, or TV show going while I play certain video games.

If there’s multiple stories happening it’s harder. I’ll miss stuff and have to rewind a lot. But if it’s like, Forza or Diablo or MSFS or something it works really well and keeps me engaged.

But I realize that’s probably not how everyone works.

Anecdotally, I'd say that this depiction is in line with how I feel my ADHD symptoms present themselves. Now, I don't typically have all of these things going at once, per se, but I will definitely queue up a series of attention sinks and bounce between them as soon as my brain loses interest in the topic being discussed. It's why the TikTok/YouTube Shorts format is so dangerous to my productivity, as it constantly delivers novel entertainment in bite size doses. If I'm medicated, and mindful of my behavior, I am able to shut out alternate attention sinks and focus on one at a time. I guess it's kind of like tunnel vision. That has a negative connotation, but it's super helpful to me since, left to my own devices, I have trouble regulating which stimuli to focus on.

Ymmv, of course.

The point isn't to focus on them all. It's just to be there so as to make maintaining focus easier. It's hard to explain why

Scientifically, no one can. They are just doing multiple things worse.

It's not quite as many different things, but I usually need music or podcasts in my ears while doing something else. Sometimes it's just noise; I occasionally have to rewind to check a joke or fact I missed while my focus increased on something else. If I don't have the stimuli, I find my mind wandering in worse ways though. Driving and a podcast help me focus on the read and not get highway hypnosis or looking at every single thing. Podcast while gaming helps me keep focus on anything somewhat mundane in the game (this varies by game, but most games aren't 100% pumping 100% of the time).

If I really need to focus on something, then podcasts are a distraction that gets turned off. Music also fits this roll, but depending on how much focus I need I may end up changing from music to lyrics to instrumentals.if I have no external extra stimuli I find myself getting bored, mind wandering, etc. So it helps me focus by having a second input my eyes don't need.

I can't do two visual inputs at once, nor two audio inputs. But I usually need input from both. Oh, and the fan thing is incidental. My room produces more heat so I have a room a/c running often, and it's also a white noise generator I guess. It doesn't run in winter so it's not always on, but this time of year it's a regular noise for me.

it's sorta like how a lot of ADHD people get tired when they take stimulants, my brain is just constantly seeking a ton of stimulation and if i don't satisfy that then i'm distracted by every little thing around me AND bored out of my mind.

you can think of it sorta like how a baby will keep grasping at things and being a menace, but then you put a toy in its hands and instantly it's utterly enamored and gurgling in joy.