[Tfug] Mastering the High-Tech Tools That Help Us

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Keith,

[have you got "settled in" yet?]

--- keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I read this article on ACBNews.  It talks about
> humans getting into a "thrashing" type of mode.  I
> found it an interesting read because I find myself
> increasingly distracted and feel like I am getting
> less done that I think I should.

Of course!  Multitasking is not a panacea.  There is
a cost to multitasking -- in time and space!  I.e.,
the time required for the "context switch" is time
lost -- the time it takes the processor to save
the current state and restore the state of the
about-to-be-resumed task is analagous to the time
it takes you to remember where you are and where
you *were*.

The *space* it takes for the processor to store the
current state (registers, stack, etc.) is a space
penalty.  The same types of things apply to human
efforts -- undoubtedly, if you are doing N things
at once, you have N little "piles" of "work in
progress" that you must maintain.  Or, pay the
price of storing all that stuff where it "belongs"
(which costs you more *time* to drag it in/out
at each context switch).

However, unlike machines, human multitasking doesn't
scale as well.  It's harder to remember lots of
things (much harder than it is for a machine).
I recall chhucking in my freshman AI course when
Winston claimed short-term memory was *7* (?)
items deep ("Ha!  How the hell can he know *that*
number?!!").  Of course, with time, you realize
that it really *is* that shallow  :<

<shrug>  Prioritize and let the cruft fall out of
the "priority loop" so you can more efficiently
deal with the things that *need* to get done...
 
> ---
> Multitasking has long been a badge of honor for the
> digitally well-armed, a term equating high personal
> productivity with computerlike efficiency.
> 
> Blackberries, cell phones and laptops are being
> banned from office meetings -- forcing employees to
> go "topless" or "laptop-less."
> 
> But also widely discussed in recent years has been
> the notion that -- as with computers, so with people
> -- there is a price to pay for distributing
> attention too widely across tasks. What seems like a
> hyperproductive approach to work can actually be
> counterproductive.
> 
> Computer scientists have a word for the phenomenon:
> thrashing. That's when a computer is.......

Well, thrashing simplifies the problem -- and only
one aspect of it...



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