Take THAT!, Anti-MultiTasker-science-studying bastard-guys! HAH!
Ever since the first studies emerging about Multitasking being a productivity+accuracy-killing time-waste, I both cheered and booed, believed and doubted.
I cheered for Focus, I cheered for Reasonable Expectations in the Workplace.
But my Evolutionary Brain was Booing and calling BOGUS!!!
I remember thinking about Gordon Ramsay. The first thing that came to mind was, “CHRIST, WHAT AN A****LE!!!”.
And then I stopped thinking about Gordon Ramsay.
-But the idea of a Chef, maybe even an Iron Chef stuck with me.
THOSE guys have got to be maybe the best Multi-Tasker/Super-Taskers I’ve ever seen.
They’ve got the exact recipe for every single thing they make in-mind – right down to the details, and they’re directing, querying+remembering status on every single piece of the chain, from Multiple Teams, All At Once.
+AND, running multiple Finish-to-Finish Dependencies at once. +AND then initiating setup, prep, previous-stage-clearing, Finish-to-Start Dependencies so that the Next course work can begin after the workspace has cleared-down from the previous one.
I’m sure there are even more things I’m leaving out, like ticket-tracking, quality-assurance-feedback-loops, simultaneous-inventory-tracking, managing input-flow of customers into the diningroom vs. the historical model for the speed that specific crew can do in #covers/minute/course, etc.
But, before I give you the link and you look at the stats, think of this: Chefs are MADE, not Born.
-Every single one of those guys learned and did repetitive Conditioning to become a Super-Tasker over the course of their careers.
They Learned to memorize techniques, recipes, taste, smell, +mouthfeel goals, chemistry, some physics, fine detail, the tactical-scrum project management of a battlefield infantry commander, and probably the BEST short/mid-term working-memory of any human on the planet.
-All to end up a Professional Multi-Tasker.
*The question is now, “Can the benefits of that training be passed-down genetically? Can we Evolve into this feature(set)?”
-Or, further out… [God, I Know this is wacky] “Can the Architectural and Skill-based Neurological Changes we make somehow be encoded and passed down to our children; -or is it all just ‘Nurture’?”
The reason I ask this out loud, and for anyone to chime in on the comments is this:
I think that existing and future velocity of computing in every spectra/theater of life will evolve the world we [will] live into even More of a Split-Focus, Live-Datastream-Dense, and sparkling with the vibrance of Infinite-Regression-Complexity, type-of place to be.
-I mean, when they get SO Cheap and Standardized, there will be little mini-computers and RFIDs in our freaking Toenail-Clippers and Shoelaces…
The only solution I can imagine is to evolve our deliberate-thinking-procedure into a meatspace-analog of Sony’s “Cell” Processor; -multiple task-performing cores with 1 VERY sophisticated “Traffic Cop”-unit.
What other jobs are out there besides Chef that actually DO require a Real, Actual, Bona-Fide, 2.5%-er, Multi-Tasker/Super-Tasker?
Photo Credits: Publicity Photo of Gordon Ramsay for “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox, by ITV Studios, Granada America, A. Smith & Co. Productions and Fox
Links:
• via: TheTruthAboutCars-SuperTaskers Are 2.5% Of The Population
• More Coverage: Wikipedia-Cell Processor | Wired-SuperTaskers
• Source Study: UU-Applied Cognition Lab | UU-ACL-Watson, [PDF LINK] J. M. & Strayer, D. L. (2010). Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multi-tasking Ability
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