Multitasking for Aspies impossible???

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Exactly. That's not true multi-tasking. The reason why we're considered to suck at multi-tasking is because we have executive dysfunction. Switching tasks is extremely difficult for us. It takes me at least half a second, and that's at the very minimum. It's not uncommon for a change to take up to 5-10 seconds.

I used to fly radio controlled model helicopters; a skill that requires very precise multi-tasking.
Although not an expert I did learn to fly very quickly whereas many struggle for years to learn the basics. Flying a model heli is like trying to balance one egg on top of another egg in each hand.

I do more than one task at a time sometimes, but other times I fail at doing so.
It's not impossible, though, in my view.

It could be argued that multicore CPUs DON'T multitask! Essentially, they have renamed a CPU a core, and packaged several CPUs in one package. How is a good 4 cpu athlon II system different from a 1"cpu" 4 core athlon II system? It really isn't.

Hyperthreading is obviously some multitasking built into the core and effectively non preemptive multitasking.

And yeah, it seems EVERYONES brain is multithreaded, but the executive ability that controlls it limits it. When you are driving, for example, if you think about it non preemptive and preemptive multitasking is involved. You may do most of the stuff without even thinking.

I think anyone can multi-task, but I don't think anyone can do it effectively. To explain this lets say you are playing a video game as a single task. You will most likely do really well with that task alone because all of your attention is on that game, no matter what kind it is. Now throw in watching Anime and playing the game at the same time. It is possible to do both, but you will not do as well with the game and most likely it will take longer to accomplish what you are doing in it. You also will most likely not get all the information from the anime, and you will miss some parts of it. You can even add surfing the internet and posting on these forums and it just gets even less effective. So really as humans its impossible to truly multi-task effectively in my opinion. I would much rather prefer to focus on one task and do it really well and move on to the next one. That way I know each task is done at my best potential.

Also another positive to just doing one thing at a time is that its a heck of a lot less stressful. Its like a double negative when we multi-task. Everything suffers in quality and it brings more stress to us. So why do we do it? I think its because of the mold society has made for us. Just look at business in general. The ones that make high quality products anymore are the ones that only focus on a certain thing. Look at Apple right now. They have put a lot of effort just in the iPhone and iPod and look where it is. I am not a fan of apple, but that is the result of putting focus on one product. Yeah it still requires a lot of work, but it is one product. The iPod is what saved apple as a company, and the iPhone is still the top selling phone.

Now lets look at Microsoft. They have there hands into everything, gaming, software, entertainment, music. They tried making the Zune and it failed. They are not doing so hot with there Windows Mobile Phone. It was released with way less features than any other phone out there. The Xbox360 when it was first released had a huge problem of what is known as Red Ring of Doom. There Operating System is easily hacked. See the difference in quality?

I am aware that Microsoft is mainstream, but just imagine if all they did focus on was there operating system? We would get the quality that Apple has given us with the iPhone.

I don't favor one company over the other, and both have changed the way we do things today. But it just comes to show that quality will suffer when we try to do a whole bunch of things at once. If a big corporation with thousands of employees can't do it how can we as individuals?

Just some food for thought.

FaithWalker

What about playing two different melodies in counterpoint, one with your right hand and the other with your left?

*rips hair out in frustration*

It is neurologically IMPOSSIBLE! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

You're switching focus on your two hands when you play the piano. That's why you don't play as many notes with your left hand. It's kind of like playing the guitar. You don't realize it, but you're switching every milisecond when you switch notes. Some people who have played it over a long period of time can do it even faster with more notes.

Nope. I do it an awful lot.

THANK YOU.

I need to learn not to be so easily frustrated.

I get really confused and frusterated if I try to multi-task.......so yeah I don't.

I think this is another case where the people on the spectrum fall on the two extremes - either we can't process more than one stimuli at a time, or we must process all stimuli that we notice. Personally, while I process more than one thing, I am completely blind to some things. Even details like what someone is wearing just aren't processed at all. It's strange. Of course it actually appears the same as the tunnel-vision, even in overloading. I've related completely to things people post, other than in the area of executive function.




Even if we don't process things in parallel, that's not the definition.

Multitasking is /explicitly/ interrupt driven and quick context switching. It's context switching fast enough that it appears that you are doing more than one thing at once. The word for human multitasking /comes from/ computer multitasking. Your computer currently is likely doing about a hundred things at once despite only being able to do at most 8 things in parallel. Multitasking is the illusion that these are simultaneous because of swapping quickly enough often enough.

I don't know whether humans process things in parallel, however not doing that doesn't mean that we don't multitask.

I give up!

I don't consider that multi-tasking. Chewing bubble-gum while typing on a computer isn't multi-tasking. Something that can be done on auto-pilot doesn't count as a true mental task. Multi-tasking is being required to rapidly switch your attention back and forth between multiple tasks rather than finishing one task before moving on to the next.

That isn't efficient. At all. I'd rather just do things one at a time.

Not just inefficient, it's outright painful. However, it's what the NT work place expects.