OK. Read this article first.
I bet 96% of all “super-taskers” are women. Sorry guys, but you know it’s true. I think the studies cited in the Wall Street Journal article (name dropping to increase my own credibility) support my “Mastodon Theory”. A man cannot multi-task because we are hard-wired for exceptional powers of focus. Like human lasers without the devastating heat effects we sometimes wish we had, the male brain is capable of zeroing in on a single source of stimulus to the exclusion of all others. This amazing skill reached its evolutionary pinnacle towards the latter part of the Pleistocene, roughly 15,000 years ago. When you are a small, hairy mammal with no visible means of protection other than a few animal pelts and a sharp stick (we have no fangs, claws, or armored shells to speak of), absolute focus on the Mastodon (genus Mammut) standing in front of you is pretty much a good skill to master. Critical, actually. Thus, we cannot multi-task.
Voila: the “Mastodon Theory”.
No?
Alright, maybe you’ll grant me this: the brains of boys and girls do not develop in the same way, at least not when you start getting down into the nitty-gritty and don’t just look at the basic human trends. As an anthropology student, I learned that there are trends and characteristics that serve to differentiate between species, and then there are trends and characteristics that serve to differentiate within species. All I’m saying is that when you get into it at the intra-species level, you have to admit that there’s a good chance that the men in your life will be doing that Mastodon thing more often than they will that super-tasker thing. Provided, of course, they can do the latter at all. Conversely, the women in your life will be managing many more moving parts. All at the same time.
I guess the point I am attempting to make is simple: there is a biological basis for human behavior, and the behavior in which we engage is often indicative of the talents we possess. There are also trends to these behaviors. So, if you become conscious of the trends and attempt to study some of the ways in which the human brain functions, you’ll open your mind to a whole new way of perceiving and appreciating the people with whom you interact. We may not be facing down those Mastodons any more, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an echo of those ancient moments reverbrating inside of us today. All of us.
Illuminate Possibilities 