doing fifty five in the fifty fo'

I have my headphones on at work at all times. It doesn’t affect me when I’m writing (listening to The Who’s The Kids Are Alright right now as I’m typing this) but I have trouble reading and listening to music at the same time. I figured it’s either because my brain is trying too hard to decipher Thom York’s manic lyrics or I’m just a bit slow.

Then I read “In Defense of Distraction” (thanks to Ms Yin’s recommendation) and this part seems to explain it:

“Over the last twenty years, Meyer and a host of other researchers have proved again and again that multitasking, at least as our culture has come to know and love and institutionalize it, is a myth. When you think you’re doing two things at once, you’re almost always just switching rapidly between them, leaking a little mental efficiency with every switch. Meyer says that this is because, to put it simply, the brain processes different kinds of information on a variety of separate “channels”—a language channel, a visual channel, an auditory channel, and so on—each of which can process only one stream of information at a time. If you overburden a channel, the brain becomes inefficient and mistake-prone. The classic example is driving while talking on a cell phone, two tasks that conflict across a range of obvious channels: Steering and dialing are both manual tasks, looking out the windshield and reading a phone screen are both visual, etc. Even talking on a hands-free phone can be dangerous, Meyer says. If the person on the other end of the phone is describing a visual scene—say, the layout of a room full of furniture—that conversation can actually occupy your visual channel enough to impair your ability to see what’s around you on the road.

The only time multitasking does work efficiently, Meyer says, is when multiple simple tasks operate on entirely separate channels—for example, folding laundry (a visual-manual task) while listening to a stock report (a verbal task). But real-world scenarios that fit those specifications are very rare.”

Ahh, so it’s not me then.

I disagree with the driving and talking on phone part though. If you’re an awesome driver you an awesome driver, no two ways about it. I used to drive while talking on the phone with a whopper in one hand and the other juggling between holding the wheel, flipping off tailgaters, and doing that air drumming thing where you pound tap the finger along to the beat.

All that and I can parallel park, exactly 8 inches to the curb, in one smooth motion.

Jordan Fist Pump