Re: [Phys-L] multitasking

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Good, the research comes out.  Of course  there are times when some form of
multitasking is necessary for survival.  And there are times when it makes
you more productive because of exterior constraints.  For example if you are
doing something on a computer which takes a while to finish, switching to
another task rather than waiting for the finish will be more efficient.
This is true if it takes minutes for something to finish.  But most people
would not call that multitasking, but rather just efficient use of time.

There is most probably a reason why ADD has survived as a human variation.
It is probably because in a hunting group having a person who pays attention
to everything is valuable when you might also be the hunted.  But most of
the hunters have to have focused attention, so it only survives as a
minority variation.  Then again it might be a random variation.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> I think I'll stick with Harvard and MIT research over anecdotes here,
>
> "A recent Harvard Business Review post says that multitasking 
> leads to as 
> much as a 40% drop in productivity, increased stress, and a 
> 10% drop in IQ 
> (Bergman, 2010)."
.......