JP has some thoughts about humans multitasking which came out of something Edward Hallowell said in an article about what Mr Hallowell terms ‘Attention Deficit Trait’.
Quoting the bit that sparked this from an article from the The Econom…

Dave just referred to Majora Carter’s talk. What a coincidence – Majora is a friend and fellow activist! Fitting that this ref. comes back to me after I prodded JP on the subject of ADT!
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http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/06/majora_carter_o.html

http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/files/kenrobinson.html

CADD is that golden moment when – unable to focus any further, -on hearing more information on yet another feature or function or product or module, the customer starts think of the last email or the next meeting or the need to collect the kids from school that evening.

CADD occurs when we are unable to speak in the customers language / to hold their attention / to give context – so we talk at them in the vain hope that something we say will “stick”.

Anyways, there’s lots of issues in there for me. The particular one I needed clarification for is how Mr Hallowell reconciles the statements that “people who work in physical isolation are more likely to suffer from ADT than those who share a lively office” and also says, in the interview on Digerati’s Domain, “Warren Buffett sits in a little office in the middle of nowhere and spends a lot of his time just thinking.”

On the surface these seemed contradictory to me.

I’ve more, but you’ll have to wait…I’m suppossed to be working…and even though I enjoy this more, as yet it does not pay the bills! ;)

Dave

It’s an 8 paragraph single page article written by Tim Hindle, the management editor of the Economist.

Para 1 defines ADT. Para 2 looks at a study of workers somewhere in California and how they get disturbed by things like e-mail. Para 3 looks at ubiquity via mobiles and blackberries. Paras 4, 5 and 6 look at emerging (!?!) etiquette for e-mail. Para 7 stresses the value of asynchronous commun ications.

And I quote para 8 in full here:

Mr Hallowell says that people who work in physical isolation are more likely to suffer from ADT than those who share a lively office. He recommends that we walk away from the computer screen “every four to six hours for a human moment, a face to face exchange with a person you like. ” Just make sure the person you choose is not a multi-tasking mainac, who thinks he can send an e-mail, participate in a conference call and watch CNN — all at the same time as he pays you enough attention for you, if you are lucky, to reduce your own attention deficit.

Not everyone chooses their physical isolation, which is why I thought your opinion would be even more telling than usual :-)