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

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“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. 

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• 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).