First off, that blurb is pretty meaningless. Obviously trained athletes would be better at running a few miles than some desk jockey; what does that have to do with multitasking? Furthermore, the bit about 12 hours of Java isn't a statement about multitasking, it is a statement of exactly the opposite, sustained focus and concentration.
Second, I just read an article in Times (from an old issue though) explaining how people's brains are biologically incapable of being good at multitasking, and that multitasking means you are being inefficient at the various tasks, as opposed to efficiently doing them one at a time. Mostly it was a "reduce the clutter" sort of philosophy. Not saying I'm throwing in with one side or the other, just that it's an interesting coincidence that articles with opposing views on the same subject are randomly coming to my attention at the same time.
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First off, that blurb is pretty meaningless. Obviously trained athletes would be better at running a few miles than some desk jockey; what does that have to do with multitasking? Furthermore, the bit about 12 hours of Java isn't a statement about multitasking, it is a statement of exactly the opposite, sustained focus and concentration. Second, I just read an article in Times (from an old issue though) explaining how people's brains are biologically incapable of being good at multitasking, and that multitasking means you are being inefficient at the various tasks, as opposed to efficiently doing them one at a time. Mostly it was a "reduce the clutter" sort of philosophy. Not saying I'm throwing in with one side or the other, just that it's an interesting coincidence that articles with opposing views on the same subject are randomly coming to my attention at the same time.