NY Times article about how multitasking is not a very good idea, and you should avoid interruptions and distractions. (via philo's blog) It also says young people are actually worse at multitasking than older folks.
“We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it often can,” says one researcher.
duh. Yes. Buddhists have been teaching this for about 4 millenia. And I multitask or attempt to a lot but also fight it a lot. But of course this talk of focusing and not letting yourself be distracted from the task at hand takes on a dark cast when in the context of business efficiency. The article mentions that we have yet to have our Frederick Taylor of the information age. Y'know, the guy that worked on turning factory workers into scientifically optimized mechanized cogs? Oh I can't wait for his modern equivalent. yay.
I always remember the J.G. Ballard story "Chronopolis", in which a wise man in a future world where clocks are outlawed tells the hero, "Once someone measures how long it takes you to do something, they can try to make you do it faster."
Posted by steev at Abril 5, 2007 02:46 PM