[signorovitch]

Single-threading is also what allows you to stay up all night writing the 8 page essay that's due at 6:00am, what lets you drive for hours on end, what remembers protocol during a crisis. Not detracting from the OP's point at all, just single threading doesn't always have to be pleasant. One of its advantages is powering you through unpleasantries and getting what needs to be done done. Sometimes when we think we are 'multitasking,' we're just looking for ways to avoid the problem.

[jcgrillo]

Every one of your examples are things that I find really enjoyable. As someone who is a terribly scatter brained procrastinator, the 6AM deadline is clarifying. Realizing at 11:30pm that I haven't started the essay is (or was, long ago) a jolt of wakefulness and focus. The time between 11:45pm and 5:45am flies by in a blur. Driving 1000mi in a day--18+hr of focus. Keep the speed high enough above the speed limit to make decent time over ground but avoid the risk of a sneaky traffic cop. Take advantage of the lulls in traffic, long sight lines (or tight, windy sections) to increase your average speed. Eat just enough to not lose energy but not enough to not be hungry--a little hunger sharpens focus. Drink enough water to not be totally dehydrated, but little enough that your bathroom breaks coincide with fuel stops. Pager goes off at 3AM. Critical alert, connection pools full, database CPU 100%, p99 response times equal to the configured timeout, circuit breakers tripping. The urgency gives life some meaning. You were groggy and sleepy 1min ago and now you're blasted wide awake, throttle firewalled. Don't threaten me with a good time ;)

[FpUser]

>" Sometimes when we think we are 'multitasking,' we're just looking for ways to avoid the problem."

Which can be correct course of action. If I stuck trying to figure out how to solve some hard problem it is very good ide to switch for a while and magically the solution comes back later on since brain still manages to do something in background. Alternatively if I have to do whole lot of monotonous non rewarding work for whatever reason I would go nuts if I try to finish it in one step (considering it is long enough)