Randomanics 102: Multi-tasking

It hasn't been scientifically proven - yet.
But it has been my, and almost everone else's, observation that women are better predisposed to multitasking than men.

By multitasking I mean doing several (not just two!) complex tasks at the same time. And to all the gentlemen out there, watching TV and eating does NOT qualify as complex tasks, nor does doing them together constitute a multitask.

But I digress.

It's an observation my friends and I have always referred to when pointing out the differences between our gender and that of the "others". At the onset, it may sound like we're bitching and moaning about how men can never keep up with us women. Or to put it more colorfully, that it'd take a divine act to get men off their butts to do stuff like laundry, cooking, babysitting the kids or balancing the checkbook.

Yet if men cared to endure the chatter, they'd find that down the conversation, women will admit (deep in their heart of hearts) that men have purposes beyond procreation. While women are whizzes at multitasking, we are next to useless when it comes to making quick, decisive actions.

For the women out there, try recalling the last time someone asked you where you'd like to eat out. Admit it, it took you NO LESS than 10 minutes to make that decision. Why? Because chances were, you had so many options in mind to which you will also shoot down with less-than-kind remarks.

Why not this one? Oh their bathrooms are horrible.

Or the other one? I heard somewhere that they don't serve diet cola.

And what's the name of that new restaurant down the block? Oh right, they've redecorated. I heard they hired this new designer and that the reviews are really good. But I don't like it there. They don't have free coffee refills.

It even gets worse when you put several females together. The decision-making time gets a compounded multiplicator of 0.35 for every additional female brain that gets lumped into the decision making process.

So if you ask a group of 5 women where they'd want to have dinner, do the math:

1 woman = 10 mins
+ girlfriend # 1 = 10 minutes + (10mins x 0.35) = 13.5 mins
+ girlfriend # 2 = 13.5 mins + (13.5 x 0.35) = 18.22 mins
+ girlfriend # 3 = 18.22 mins + (18.22 x 0.35) = 24.6 mins
+ girlfriend # 4 = 24.6 mins + (24.6 x 0.35) = 33.22 mins

It takes them more than half an hour to decide where to have dinner.

And don't even start with where to get desserts.

Men, on the other hand, can be relied on to make a quick call on any given situation. It may not be the best call to a female mind, but it's the decision-making time we're clocking here, not the quality of the decision.

Here's an interesting excersise:
Go to your favorite coffee-distribution establishment where the beverage options go beyond "regular" and "large" and where the options have sub-options, which have their own options and so on and so forth.

Position yourself near the counter where the customers place their order. Make sure you have a timing device on you at that time. Now observe the customers' decision-making time and categorize them according to gender. You will find that women take significantly longer to make a decision.

My own findings say that women stack an average 1 mins and 45 seconds to the men's 30 seconds...

More than 3 times the male average. hhhhamazing.

So where does this lead us?

To me, it's yet another case for heterosexuality.
Women are meant to be with men.
And men... well, they just won't work (well) without women.

In much as the same way during prehistory where the women gathered food and the men hunted for food, women gather options which men hunt down to a definite decision.

Now that may seem too simplistic but it's that simplicity that appeals to me.

It may not sound typical of a female mind.
But who's asking?