I was having a sales conversation, discussing several ideas around managing tasks and attention. I happened to mention the background of the term multitasking and his eyes got really big and he started asking questions. I realized that he was not familiar with the story of how we arrived at the term “multitasking” and so I told it to him. He was fascinated and realized that there is really very little evidence that humans can multitask – it’s like we all believe some fable. This encouraged him to realize that he needed to abandon his pretext of trying to multitask and to take his attention management more seriously We don’t want to acknowledge our “weakness”, so we don’t use the tool that helps us. Fair enough, human nature and all – who wants to walk with a cane? History of the idea of multitasking shows that the term is only about 70 years old – prior to that, nobody had any concept that we could (or would want to) do it. The first known published use of the term is in 1965. For data, I consulted Google N-gram viewer

The rise in use of “multitasking”
The most interesting thing is that computers still can’t really do it.

So, let’s look at the rise of the notion in computing

The original computer was a single-task mechanical device
From that, we built a machine that could have its purpose controlled on the fly.
That’s what a Turing machine is – that’s the concept.
so we've conceptualized this notion that the machine can do multiple things, do different things,
The term multitasking came into use in the 60s, and it was engineers talking to engineers
It was never a term that was really intended to apply to human people

If it wasn’t intended to apply to people, why do we apply it to people?

Brain as computer and computer as brain
If a computer can do it, then maybe a human brain can do it, and if a human brain can do it, and maybe a computer could do it.
We’re not multitasking, we're task switching and applying continuous partial attention.

Fine, we’re task switching, why is that bad?

Almost before we recognize it, we have switched task
We lose our focus
I'd better do that now. I'd better stop what I'm doing and go do that thing
We're slow task switchers - neurobiology

Fine, I’m reactive – isn’t that what is required?

Things that make us feel the need to stop doing what we're doing and start doing another thing.
A majority of people don’t know that this is a problem - that we can't multitask
Our machines are much more responsive, consistent, and well-trained than we are We need to find and solve systemic problems in our processes
We can only do those things through calm thoughtful work

What if your reactivity is just a habit adopted from a distorted picture of “what everyone else is doing”, a symptom of a lack of understanding the real principles of producing and capturing value in the world? When you're too close to the situation, it becomes difficult to see the big picture. That's the origin of the saying "can't see the forest for the trees." When you don't know what you don't know, it's impossible to find the solution. larry@dobusyright.com; www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble

Humans Monotask; Computers Task-switch; Nothing Multitasks - DBR 061