Is Continuous Partial Attention part of Human Evolution?

During my Freshman year in high school, I was asked to write a major project paper.  Armed with only a electric typewriter and access to a local library, I decided to write a comprehensive summary of the engineering principles used in Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions spanning 80 single spaced pages.   The only way I could do this was to focus completely on the task for hours at a time, reading, analyzing, writing, typing.  There was no internet, no mobile devices, and no personal computer which enabled easy editing.As an undergraduate at Stanford I wrote 3 books by isolating myself from all distractions and using an early word processor, finishing the manuscripts by pure strength of will.Throughout my adult life, I’ve avoided multitasking, since I’ve found that I cannot produce a quality product while thinking about many topics simultaneously.I’m a product of the 1960’s, growing up without technology, taught via lecture style classwork without the benefit of multimedia.I advise many millenials, including my daughter, who was born in 1993, the same year Tim Berners Lee invented the world wide web.   She has not experienced a day on earth without an internet connection.My mother grew up in an era before the fax machine when the handwritten letter and the land line telephone were the only means of communication. Each of us has a different approach to work, communication, and learning.    We represent the voice mail, email, and texting genera...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs