“Where do you want to go today?” asked Microsoft in a mid-1990s ad campaign. The suggestion was that there were endless destinations—some geographic, some social, some intellectual—that you could reach in milliseconds by loading the right devices with the right software. It was further insinuated that where you went was purely up to you, not your spouse, your boss, your kids, or your government. Autonomy through automation.This was the embryonic fallacy that grew up into the monster of multitasking.The Autumn of the Multitaskers
A good article, take a looksee. It's not anti-Microsoft, there's just this part on the "Where do you want to go today?" ad. The article is about multitasking and why our brains really don't work that way. I'm reminded of all the silly arguments I've had with managers over the years about how "productive" "open pit" environments are where there are no cubicle walls and everyone just talks to everyone else on the team all the time. Bleargh!
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Tags: multitasking, attention, WalterKirn