Experience isn’t what it used to be.
In Episode 5 of The Beyond Productivity series, we discussed how technology is changing our experience. In that conversation, I used the word multithreading rather than multitasking, since I wasn’t necessarily thinking about what we do with our experience, but rather, how we acquire information. I didn’t go into depth there, but I’ve been thinking more about it recently.
Multithreading is a term used in computer science to refer to the ability of computers to process multiple sources of input at once. It’s also a useful way to think about how we acquire and process information, especially as the sources of input become increasing more complex. But let’s start from the beginning…
Humans used to acquire information from two sources early in our social development, and during those times, we had, roughly, two outlets for creation: we could create physical stuff, or we could create conversations. That model looks something like this:
The circle in the middle is our brains – the nexus of our experiences and thoughts. I’m not going to discuss what goes on inside there today, since the point is the information we’re getting and how we’re outputting that information. On the left side, pointing towards the circle, are experience streams; on the right are the creation streams.
That was then. This is now:
As I said, experience isn’t what it used to be.
Spinning in Circles
The problem of multithreading can be particularly frustrating for creative people, because often times, we not only have to worry about the information we’re acquiring, but also the things we’re creating. It really is that overwhelming, as we’re trying to figure out how to filter all of the information, what to create from that information, and what creation stream to send our creations down. That’s a lot to process at once.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how our three main tasks are to create, connect, and consume. The point of that post was to think about ways in which we can focus on what we’re trying to do rather than trying to do to many things at once, since it’s easy to spin around and around and still not really get anything done.
There’s a lot we can do to simplify things. For instance, when we focus solely on creating, our experience/creative threads look like this:
The multiple arrows here still illustrate the point that many people still try to create multiple things simultaneously. That is, in the middle of writing, a though occurs to them, and they’ll jump on Twitter to share that thought (guilty!). The ideal case is when we focus solely on creating one thing at a time.
Note that focusing on creating shuts down the experience streams coming in. While it’s very difficult to increase our mental capacity in any given moment, increasing the amount of available mental capacity is as simple as minimizing the other things that are tugging at our minds. This trend carries to the next two models, as well.
When we focus on consuming, it looks like this:
As with creating, the ideal case is when we’re focusing on one source at a time. For what it’s worth, this is one of the reason why so many people get more from reading physical books as opposed to blogs: when most people read books, they shut down a lot of the sources that would otherwise distract them. Of course, the other reason is that books give authors the chance to go into more depth, and we readers give the author more time to develop her ideas.
Connecting is a bit different, as it’s a two way process. It looks like this:
Connecting with people is a multidirectional activity. We’re sharing experiences, emotions, and information back and forth, and this transactional dimension is what makes real-time discussions with people both so enjoyable and so fruitful. The sum is indeed greater than the parts.
One Thing At A Time
Despite what we may think, there’s only so much that we can process and create at once. Each additional input that reaches the level of our awareness (and some that don’t) diminishes the amount of available focus, and each additional output that we simultaneously try to work on at once decreases the total pool of concentration that we have available. The most common results that we see from having too much coming in and/or too much going out is wheel-spinning and lower quality work.
We know this at one level, but at another level, it’s incredibly hard to train yourself to focus in a society so full of distractions. When Angela and I visit our families, one of the hardest things for us to do is to accept that spending time with people means either yelling over the TV or talking during the commercials. Our strategies for interactions, though, aren’t idiosyncratic; since we all accept the “normalness” of interacting with people over distractions, we each downshift our interactions such that they can be multithreadable – with the result that when we talk, we really don’t talk. We share sound bites that can compete with the distractions. It’s really no wonder that so many people are drama-addicts in our culture, since drama is immediately more interesting than the “mundane” awesomeness that happens in our lives.
The real problem here is that, while the complexity of our experience and creation streams have increased significantly due to technological and social changes, our ability to process multiple inputs and outputs hasn’t been able to keep up. At the same time, many of us aren’t really aware of what all we’re trying to process, and when we are, we may not have the self-discipline to shut things down. But we don’t have to be victims of our environment.
What I’m asking you to do is to be cognizant of all the different experience/creation streams you’re juggling at once and to consider shutting some of them down for a few days. Turn off the TV when you’re talking to people. Shutdown Twitter and your email client when you’re creating. When you read, just read.
This may be awkward at first precisely because you’ll be more aware of those things you are experiencing and you’ll probably be able to create or consume at a much higher level than you’re used to. You’ll be more in tune with nonverbal communication and verbal nuances of the people you’re connecting with.
In short, you’ll be experiencing what it’s like when you aren’t multithreading experiences. And you may find that you like it.
Thanks for this, Charlie. I don’t know that the input and output streams are that critical to this issue; it seems to me that the problem isn’t source, but volume. Social media, blogs, print media, etc. are all still forms of direct experience, and they’re also conversations that we create (albeit in different mediums than were previously available). Perhaps this is all semantics, though.
Today’s challenge is, as you allude to, where to allocate our most scare resource (attention). Your work on productivity is helping with that, as has the work of David Allen and others. Capturing all those stray thoughts that tempt us to divert from what we’re doing NOW and interrupting our flow is probably the most pressing need we face to really become effective creators.
Jason D Barrs last blog post..Book Review – “Reclaim Your Dreams” by Jonathan Mead
Experience is EXACTLY what it used to be. Always new and always changing.
Great tips! Keep rockin’
Dougs last blog post..Mindgate
Excellent advice, Charlie. I recently wrote about how owning a puppy has taught me to focus on one thing rather than try to blog while making sure the couch doesn’t get soiled. I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of connection lately, and about how a lot of folks — me in particular — could benefit from more human connections.
Catherine Cantieri, Sorteds last blog post..Electric April: Cable management
Charlie, well said. I definitely agree that there’s a huge tendency to multithread and multitask in today’s culture. The problem is that the human brain operates more like Intel hyperthreading than true multithreading – we maintain multiple contexts, but we only actually process one context at any given moment, and quickly switch between them. Naturally the overhead involved in maintaining and switching between all those contexts consumes a big chunk of our processing capacity, which as you said leads to reduced quality and wheel-spinning.
I would submit that most people overload more on the the input side than on the output side. That’s a side effect of media saturation. Most forms of media employ various psychological tactics to grab our attention in order to gain a bigger slice of our attention from their competitors. Sci-fi author Charlie Stross posted a great rant about social media as an attractive nuisance that speaks to this point: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/04/antisocial_networking.html. But I believe that Charlie S’s point applies to most forms of media, not just social media.
Being aware of the problem and consciously working to avoid overload and multithreading will definitely improve quality and reduce stress. Just stepping back from TV and reading news sites has made a big difference for me. I still struggle with email and Twitter (damn those attractive nuisances), but I’ll keep working on it.
Charlie, thanks for a great call to action. Keep the wisdom flowing!
This is a really insightful perspective on the consume vs. create discussion. I constantly need to remind myself of this, because spending large chunks of time in front of a laptop makes it so easy to “multitask.” There’s no question in my mind that I’m more productive when I’m “mono-tasking,” but I must say it’s a hard habit to break!
When I write fiction, I tend to be pretty disciplined about shutting everything else out. Now I am slowly applying that to my other activities… slowly, but surely I hope!
Zoes last blog post..Answers to My Midnight Questions
@Jason: I see where you’re coming from regarding direct experience; the point that I should have expressed more clearly is that we have different ways of processing those experience streams. Couple that with how many streams we’re trying to juggle, and you get a problem with cognitive overhead. Thanks for pressing into that ambiguity!
@Doug: The newness and dynamism of experience are consistent, you’re right. What’s new, I think, is our lack of awareness that we’re trying to shove a basketball through a firehose. This is all much clearer to me as I think about it. Thanks for the feedback!
@Catherine: I’m in the same boat re: human connections. The difficult part has been balance for me, but isn’t that always the problem?
@Mike: As always, you’ve elevated the discussion here, Mike. And I agree that it’s not social media that the problem more than direct experience (for instance); the problem is trying to multithread too much at once. And “mastering” email and Twitter is a process – sometimes it’s good, and other times – well, we need to work on it a bit more.
@Zoe: It’s a really hard habit to break, indeed – it’s especially difficult since we spend so much time trying to make it easier to multitask and get to the things that are distracting us. Imagine, for instance, that you had to walk around the block before you checked email. How much less often would you do it? (Hmm, I may be on to something here.)
I think you are onto something, Charlie — I feel a mental exercise in the works?
Zoes last blog post..Answers to My Midnight Questions
I spend WAY too much time multi-tasking, thinking I’m getting way more done than I actually am. It’s only when I slow down, breathe in and absorb the world around me that I get what I should be getting done done and enjoying it at the same time. At least I’m a quick study and am doing this less and less. The last thing I want to do is spin in circles.
Writer Dads last blog post..How to NEVER run out of ideas
This is all too true. There are so many distractions. I agree that we need to work on focusing on the task at hand. Indeed this will increase both the quality of our output and the quality of our experience.
Charlie,
As someone who turns off the wireless while writing, I couldn’t agree more. The visuals alone here tell the story very effectively. Thanks.
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