小米盒子能看翡翠台吗:如果一心多用是不可能的，为什么有人在这方面还特别擅长呢？

每个人都在一心多用，我们开车的时候聊天，上网的时候回邮件。现在很难想象以另外一种方式生活。我们要怎样才能能拥有另一种方式，将座椅从汽车中一走确保驾车是只有你一个人？还是封锁所有不叫GMAIL的网站？一个永远只做一件事情的世界已经奇怪得无法理解了。

But science suggests that multitasking as we know it is a myth. "Humans don't really multitask," said Eyal Ophir, the primary researcher with the Stanford Multitasking study. "We task-switch. We just switch very quickly between tasks, and it feels like we're multitasking."

但科学显示我们所知的一心多用只是个神话。“人类不会真正地一心多用”，斯坦福多任务研究中心的首席研究员Eyal Ophir称。“我们只是不断的切换任务。我们在工作之间迅速切换，然后就像是我们在一心多用一样。”

In other words, you feel like you're multitasking when you're on the Web. But if you slow down and think about your attention, you'll agree that answering email while browsing the Web is impossible. You answer email. Then you browse. Then back to email. Then again with the browsing. Like the pictures in a flip book, our focus is discrete. It is only with time and motion that our fluttering attention gains the illusion of multitasking.

换句话说，当你上网时，你只是感觉自己在一心多用。但是如果你惊险信赖想想你的注意力，你就会同意，在上网时回邮件根本是不可能的。你是回完邮件，然后上网，然后再回邮件，然后再上网。就像翻页书的每一页一样，我们的注意力是分开的。只是我们对时间和动机的感知给了我们一心多用的错觉。

In 1946, the world was introduced to history's first general-purpose electronic computer: ENIAC, nicknamed the "Giant Brain." At the time, the word multi-tasking did not exist. It first appeared in a magazine called Datamation in 1966, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the following sentence: "Multi-tasking is defined as the use of a single CPU for the simultaneous processing of two or more jobs." 

1946年，世界上出现了有史以来第一部多用途的电子计算器ENIAC，它有个昵称“巨脑”。当时，多任务这个词还不存在。根据牛津英语词典的说法，多任务这个词于1966年第一次出现在一本名为《Datamation》的杂志里，它出现在如下的句子中：“多任务被定义成用一枚cpu同时处理两项或多项工作。”

Over the next 65 years, computers have become multitasking wizards, with the ability to download movies while playing music while running complex programs and executing a million other functions we take for granted, yet in 1946 would have seemed like magic. Meanwhile, the people operating these wondrous machines have not gotten any better at multitasking over the last 60 years. If anything, we have gotten worse.

此后的65年里，计算机已经成为了多线程的巫师。我们已经理所当然的认为，它能够一边播放音乐，一边运行着复杂的程序，一边还执行者一百万其他功能时还能下载电影，尽管在1946年，这看起来只会是个魔法。同时，在过去的六十年里，操作这些神奇机器的热门也没有变得更擅长一心多用。如果有改变的话，我们变得更不擅长了。

In The Shallows, a book about memory and the Internet, Nicholas Carr said the Web was changing the way we think, read and remember. Humans are hunters and hoarders of information. We seek, we find, we remember. If the Internet is helping us seek and find data, it is hurting our ability to absorb and retain it. Before the Internet, the theory goes, our attentions expanded vertically. With the Internet, our focus extends horizontally, and shallowly.

在一本关于记忆与因特网的书《The shallows》中，Nicholas Carr表示网络已经改变了我们思考，阅读以及记忆的方式。如果因特网正在帮助我们寻找和发现数据，那么他也正在伤害我们吸收和维持数据的能力。有人推测，在因特网时代之前，我们的注意力是垂直扩展的。有了因特网，我们的注意力只会水平式的延伸，同时也是浅薄地延伸。

Why do we think we're so good at something that doesn't exist? We compensate for our inability to multitask with a remarkable ability to single-task in rapid succession. Our brains aren't a volley of a thousand arrows descending on an opposing army. Our brains are Robin Hood. One man with one bow firing on all comers, one at a time.

为什么我们会认为我们很擅长一项根本不存在的事情呢？我们为了弥补不能一心多用，而有了极快的连续处理单项任务的能力。我们的大脑不是瞄准敌军的千军万马。我们的大脑是罗宾汉。他只能不段地对来着射箭，每次一只。

If multitasking is a myth, it might come as a surprise that some people are good at it. It turns out that people who multitask -- or rapid-fire-single-task -- less are better at firing the next arrow of attention at a new task. A famous media multitasking study found that "heavy" multitaskers are more susceptible to distractions and therefore worse at task-switching effectively. This makes sense if you consider multitasking to be "the art of paying attention." Heavy multitaskers roll out the welcome mat for every new distraction. Of course they can't pay attention to things. Attention isn't their intent.

如果一心多用是不存的话，那么有人擅长一心多用这种事就很让人吃惊。结果就是，那么不那么一心多用——或者是快速的进行单项任务——的人，在面对新工作时，注意力方面会做得更好。一项著名的媒体多线程研究发现，那些“重度”的一心多用者更易分心，因此也就在有效切换任务方面做得更差。如果你认为一心多用就是“注意力的艺术”时，这就说得过去。重度的一心多用者热烈欢迎每一次注意力分散，当然他们就不会注意到什么东西上去。注意力不是他们所想要的东西。

Attention is important. And light multitaskers might be better at preserving their attention. But some people value distraction. They knowingly seek the thrill of the new. In an interview with Boing Boing, Ophir made the essential point that it's hard to determine what kind of workers are most "effective" at multitasking until you determine what they want from their work.

注意力很重要。并且轻度的一心多用者可能更擅长保持注意力。但是也有人更看重发散性思维。他们刻意地寻找新鲜事物的快感。在《BOING BOING》的采访中，Ophir指出了关键点就是，在一心多用中，很难决定那种员工是最“高效”的，直到你能确定员工想从工作中得到什么。

"I think heavy multitaskers are not less effective -- they simply have a different goal," he said. "Where you might say traditionally we value the ability to focus through distractions, they are willing to sacrifice focus in order to make sure they don't miss an unexpected, but rewarding, surprise. As a result, they might do worse in the office scenario I described, but they might also be the first to slam on the brakes in the car/mobile phone scenario."

“我认为重度的一心多用者的效率也不会更低——他们只是有不同的目的”，他说道，“你可能会说，传统上我们更重视注意力的能力而不是分心，但是这些重度的一心多用者为了确保不会错失意外的，但是值得的惊喜，他们愿意牺牲自己的注意力。因此在我所描述的办公室流程事务方面，他们可能会表现得差一些，但是在边开车边打电话的情景里，他们更容易注意到危险而去踩刹车。”

The Web is perfect for indulging our multitasking, which is really nothing more than the rapid switching of tasks, because it promises something new and fast. Science suggests that the secret to thriving in an age of universal distraction isn't to avoid distractions, but to distract ourselves smartly. The National University of Singapore found that workers who spend 20 percent or less of their time browsing the Web are 9 percent more productive than those who never go online at all. Most of what we know about attention suggests that our focus comes with strict limits. Sure, we can binge on a project, but working too hard for too long results in a hangover of productivity. Short bursts of attention punctuated with equally deliberate breaks are the surest way to harness our full capacity to be productive. 

因为提供了快速又新鲜的事情，网络容易让人一心多用（实际上无非是快速的切换任务而已。）科学家们认为，在普遍注意力分散的年代里，繁荣的秘密不是避免分心，而是聪明地分心。新加坡国立大学发现，会花大约20%时间上网的员工比起那些工作时从不上网的员工的效率要高出9%。我们对注意力的了解显示，注意力伴随着严格的局限。当然，我们可以在工作中狂欢作乐（译者注：或者此处为作者笔误，应该是我们不能再在工作中狂欢作乐），但是长时间的刻刻苦工作也会导致效率的降低。我们要保持高效的话，就必须劳逸结合。

The upshot is that it's pointless to say that one type of worker is good at multitasking, and another is bad. Instead, there is a limited supply of this thing called attention, and a million ways to divide, manage, and preserve it. For some people, a state of deep focus is office nirvana. For others, perpetual distraction is an office necessity. You fire your arrows the way you want.

要点是，说某种员工更擅长一心多用，而另外一些员工不擅长一心多用，这根本毫无意义。相反，对于我们称之为注意力的东西，来源是有限的，但是我们有一百万种方法来划分，管理和保存我们的注意力。对一些人来说，注意力高度集中是办公室必须的，而对另一些人来说，不断地发散是办公室的必须品。找到自己想要的方式就可以了。

Now get back to email.

现在，回去回邮件吧。