{"id":11819,"date":"2008-01-28T11:07:19","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T18:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/01\/28\/multitasking.html"},"modified":"2008-01-28T11:07:19","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T18:07:19","slug":"multitasking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/28\/multitasking.html","title":{"rendered":"Multitasking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An annoyingly non-technical (but rivetingly lyrical and anecdotal) story here about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/doc\/200711\/multitasking\" target=\"_blank\">the dangers, costs, and futility of multitasking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p icap=\"on\"> The abiding, distinctive feature of all crashes, whether in stock prices, housing values, or hit-TV-show ratings, is that they startle but don\u2019t surprise. When the euphoria subsides, when the volatile graph lines of excitability flatten and then curve down, people realize, collectively and instantly (and not infrequently with some relief), that they\u2019ve been expecting this correction. The signs were everywhere, the warnings clear, the researchers in rough agreement, and the stories down at the bar and in the office (our own stories included) revealed the same anxieties.<\/p>\n<p>Which explains why the busts and reversals we deem inevitable are also the least preventable, and why they startle us, if briefly, when they come\u2014because they were inevitable for so long that they should have come already. That they haven\u2019t, we reason, can mean only one of two things. Thanks to technology or some other magic, we\u2019ve entered a new age when the laws of cause and effect (as propounded by Isaac Newton and Adam Smith) have yielded to the principle of dream-and-make-it-happen (as manifested by Steve Jobs and Oprah). Either that, or the thing that went up and up and up and hasn\u2019t come down, though it should have long ago, is being held aloft by our decision to forget it\u2019s up there and to carry on as though it weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>But on to the next inevitable contraction that everybody knows is coming, believes should have come a couple of years ago, and suspects can be postponed only if we pay no attention to the matter and stay very, very busy. I mean the end of the decade we may call the Roaring Zeros\u2014these years of overleveraged, overextended, technology-driven, and finally unsustainable investment of our limited human energies in the dream of infinite connectivity. The overdoses, freak-outs, and collapses that converged in the late \u201960s to wipe out the gains of the wide-eyed optimists who set out to \u201cBe Here Now\u201d but ended up making posters that read \u201cSpeed Kills\u201d are finally coming for the wired utopians who strove to \u201cBe Everywhere at Once\u201d but lost a measure of innocence, or should have, when their manic credo convinced us we could fight two wars at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>The Multitasking Crash.<\/p>\n<p>The Attention-Deficit Recession.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I finished reading it while on the phone, keeping an eye on my e-mails, pondering notes for a safety presentation I have to give, and setting up an appointment for another discussion &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An annoyingly non-technical (but rivetingly lyrical and anecdotal) story here about the dangers, costs, and futility of multitasking. The abiding, distinctive feature of all crashes, whether in stock prices, housing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,21,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech","category-job-jollies","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39646,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/12\/could-tell-i-was-over-multitas.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":0},"title":"Could tell I was over-multitas&#8230;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Nov-13 3:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Could tell I was over-multitasking today: kept uncovering emails I'd finished hours ago but never hit Send on.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~Tweets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20818,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/20\/unblogged-bits-wed-20-apr-11-2331.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":1},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Wed. 20-Apr-11 2331)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Apr-11 11:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Can You Recognize the 10 Greatest Swords Of All Time? [Daily 10] - I'm pleased to say that I recognized all the ones I've actually been exposed to (a few game-specific ones I'd not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/10\/the_wednesday_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":2},"title":"The Wednesday Whine","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Apr-02 8:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the Wednesday Whine. Yowzers. 1. What daily ritual does it seem like you've done too many times this week? Turned off my alarm clock at 5 a.m. 2. What...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Personal Q&amp;A&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Personal Q&amp;A","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/personal-qa"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17137,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/17\/unblogged-bits-for-sat-17-apr-2010-200am.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":3},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Sat, 17 Apr 2010,  2:00AM","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 17-Apr-10 12:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Confederate History Month - That's about the size of it. Amen. Christian Refuses to Sign Civility Contract\u2026 Guess Why? - The only people Jesus showed anger and animus toward were folks (the money-changers, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17661,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/24\/unblogged-bits-thu-24-jun-10-2000.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Thu. 24-Jun-10 2000)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Jun-10 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Well\u2026 - Momo!!! Latest bizarre fatwa to avoid 'illicit mixing' - One would hope that some Christianists would see this as some great reasons why church and state should not be intermingled -- but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16537,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/15\/unblogged-bits-for-friday-15-january-2010.html","url_meta":{"origin":11819,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Friday, 15 January 2010","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jan-10 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... 'Mythbusters' Grant Imahara Explains Something Gross (Not Safe For Lunch) The Six Million Dollar Jedi - Yes, what \"Return of the Jedi\" was missing was bionics sound effects ... Multitasking in the \u201cMad Men\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}