601. Multitasking Doesn’t Work. So Why Do We Keep Trying?

Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just got to get this.
Come see Stephen Dubner live!
“A Questionable Evening: A strategic interrogation from two people who ask questions for a living,” featuring Stephen Dubner and PJ Vogt from Search Engine.
Thursday, Sept. 26th, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-questionable-evening-evening-with-stephen-dubner-and-pj-vogt-tickets-1002544747327
- Duration
- 1h 6m
- Broadcast on
- 04 Sep 2024
- Audio Format
- other
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just got to get this.
Come see Stephen Dubner live!
“A Questionable Evening: A strategic interrogation from two people who ask questions for a living,” featuring Stephen Dubner and PJ Vogt from Search Engine.
Thursday, Sept. 26th, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-questionable-evening-evening-with-stephen-dubner-and-pj-vogt-tickets-1002544747327
- SOURCES:
- Olivia Grace, senior product manager at Slack.
- Gloria Mark, professor of computer science at the University of California, Irvine.
- David Strayer, professor of cognition and neural science at the University of Utah.
- RESOURCES:
- "Immersion in Nature Enhances Neural Indices of Executive Attention," by Amy S. McDonnell and David L. Strayer (Nature: Scientific Reports, 2024).
- "Contribution to the Study on the ‘Right to Disconnect’ From Work. Are France and Spain Examples for Other Countries and E.U. Law?" by Loïc Lerouge and Francisco Trujillo Pons (European Labour Law Journal, 2022).
- "Task Errors by Emergency Physicians Are Associated With Interruptions, Multitasking, Fatigue and Working Memory Capacity: A Prospective, Direct Observation Study," by Johanna I. Westbrook, Magdalena Z. Raban, Scott R. Walter, and Heather Douglas (BMJ Quality & Safety, 2018).
- "Supertaskers: Profiles in Extraordinary Multitasking Ability," by Jason M. Watson and David L. Strayer (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 2010).
- "The Effects of Video Game Playing on Attention, Memory, and Executive Control," by Walter R. Boot, Arthur F. Kramer, Daniel J. Simons, Monica Fabiani, and Gabriele Gratton (Acta Psychologica, 2008).
- "'Constant, Constant, Multi-Tasking Craziness': Managing Multiple Working Spheres," by Victor M. González and Gloria Mark (Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI, 2004).
- EXTRAS:
- "Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
- "Why Did You Marry That Person?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
- "How Much Should We Be Able to Customize Our World?" by No Stupid Questions (2021).
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Free economics radio is sponsored by PNC Bank, boring, great word, bad rep. Yet time and time again, here at Free economics we find that when something culture changing happens, boring things like calculations and careful planning are usually behind it. Which begs the question, why not apply it to other aspects of life? Like banking, for example. Well PNC Bank did, since its inception, proving time and again that the best banking strategy isn't the exciting type but the steady, reliable, definitely not YOLO type. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring, since 1865, brilliantly boring since 1865 is a registered mark of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. PNC Bank National Association, member FDIC. Free economics radio is sponsored by Hotels.com. Hotels.com helps you find and book the right stay for work faster. With business preferences, save your travel must-haves like gym access or breakfast, just once then get tailored results whenever you search for work travel. Plus with a free membership you can save up to 20% on hotels and earn rewards on every stay for future travel. Book now at Hotels.com, visit Hotels.com for details. Free economics radio is sponsored by Mint Mobile. With Mint Mobile's summer sale, all of Mint's plans are $15 per month, even unlimited. Free yourself from big wireless and switch to Mint for high-speed data and coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com/freak. That's mintmobile.com/freak. Upfront payment, $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 months. Plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra initial plan term only. Greater than 50 GB may slow when network is busy, includes up to 20 GB hotspot. Capable device required, availability, speed and coverage varies. See Mint Mobile.com. Free economics radio is sponsored by Pacific Life Insurance. From pinky swears to I-Do, you make promises throughout your life. For nearly 160 years, Pacific Life has been helping you keep them by protecting those who matter most. Pacific Life, the power of a promise. Ask a financial professional how Pacific Life can help you create a more confident financial future. Pacific Life Insurance Company, Omaha, Nebraska and in New York, Pacific Life and Inuity, Phoenix, Arizona. Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner with an announcement. On Thursday evening, September 26th, I will be doing a live show in New York City with my friend PJ Vote from the podcast search engine. The event is called A Questionable Evening, a strategic interrogation from two people who ask questions for a living. So come see us Thursday, September 26th at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Doors open 630, show at 7, you have to be 21 to attend tickets available at thebellhouseny.com or eventbrite.com. You can also find the link in our show notes. Hope to see you there and now today's episode. I have a question. What are you doing right now? That's easy. You are listening to this podcast. At least you're partially listening. If you're like most people, you're probably doing something else at the same time. Walking your dog maybe, doing some housework or desk work or maybe coding could be running a table saw. We all know what this is called multitasking, a name taken from the early computing era and now applied to humans. It is almost a philosophy. This is who we are and this is what we do, but there are some other things to be said about multitasking, things that are not widely known. It's known within academic circles, but I guess we have failed to bring it out into the general public. And so on today's episode of freakinomics radio, which you were kind of listening to, we will tell you what the academics have failed to tell you. There is some surprising science on multitasking. It tells us something about the basic architecture of our brains. Most important, we'll hear whether multitasking works and we'll hear from someone who opposes multitasking and
Transcription truncated.
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put the — hang on a second, I've just got to get this.
Come see Stephen Dubner live!
“A Questionable Evening: A strategic interrogation from two people who ask questions for a living,” featuring Stephen Dubner and PJ Vogt from Search Engine.
Thursday, Sept. 26th, at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-questionable-evening-evening-with-stephen-dubner-and-pj-vogt-tickets-1002544747327