Sep

Multitasking in Jamaica? No way, Mon!

Posted by admin under YOUR

For an American from Kansas, dining with a dozen fast-talking Jamaicans feels like a Bob Marley concert sped up to 78 rpm. It goes by quick, and the accents are thick. You have to pay attention with both ears, all of your brain, and preferably a slang dictionary).

There are funny words and phrases you haven’t heard before: “plug it out” (unplug it), “drop legs” (dance), “all fruits ripe” (it’s all okay), “bodderation” (bother), “Jamdown” (Jamaica), “salt” (unlucky), and tons more. But that’s not the point of this story.

One of the Jamaican dinner guests was a man named Brian. As if to prove the old maxim that you can’t judge a reggae musician by his cover, Brian’s a rasta-looking guy with long dreadlocks and the corresponding colorful clothes. He did undergraduate work in physics at the University of Rochester in the ’70s. (Jamaican bobsled team?) Then he did graduate work in physics and engineering in Yugoslavia. Obviously an extremely bright guy.

On summer breaks he’d go from Yugoslavia to London and play in a reggae band with his brother. One summer they got signed to Arista Records. That turned into a two-decade career performing concerts all over the world.

He told a funny story about moving the band to L.A. for awhile, but to avoid the L.A. prices they wanted to live somewhere cheaper outside the city. They spotted a place on a map called Bakersfield. Having no inkling whatsoever that Bakersfield is the conservative, country music capital of the west, living there was a shock to the boys in the band, let alone their neighbors. None of the citizenry knew quite what to make of them. I told him it sounded like the reggae version of Green Acres.

(Merle Haggard came from Bakersfield. I wonder if he’d think a reggae rendition of “Okie From Muskogee” was cool.)

Eventually Brian retired from the road. He lives in Jamaica, writes songs, and produces new artists. I asked him who he’s currently working with. He said he’s producing a new CD for the Belgian ambassador to Jamaica.

“What?” I said. “The Belgian ambassador is a musician?” “Yep,” he said. “Plays guitar and writes good songs. Kind of like a Belgian Leonard Cohen.”

A Belgian Leonard Cohen? “So this Belgian diplomat is a professional musician?”

“Well no, not exactly. He’s actually a novelist who’s published 25 books.”

(You never know what weird stuff is gonna bubble up over dinner with strangers.)

I asked how this ambassador could do all these things at the same time, and Brian replied that the man is the most focused person he’s ever met. Whatever he’s doing, he’s totally into it. He gets up at 5 AM and plays guitar for a few hours, goes to work at the embassy around 8 AM, and maybe writes in the evenings. Whew.

All of which brings us to the point of this story: A recent study in England found that multitasking lowers your I.Q. more than smoking marijuana. (Or if you prefer, more than smoking ganja.)

I’m thinking they probably didn’t have a lot of trouble finding volunteers for this one.

Other studies have shown that multitasking increases stress hormones, lowers our efficiency by 20-40%, and makes us less happy.

Multitasking, it turns out, is the new scourge of civilization. It strains the brain. Our Analog Brains are not efficient doing simultaneous tasks in this Digital World. Despite all our efforts to the contrary.

So what’s the solution?

Stay focused. Be in the Now. Because you know what?

There’s always more Now later, mon.

(Analog Brain In A Digital World and More Now Later are two of the tracks on my upcoming CD.)