Multitaskerade

Inspired by an incident that occurred to one of our troupe members in 2018. A member of our troupe (we’ll call him “Donna Elvira”) was attempting to retake a commercial helicopter checkride he failed with a designated pilot examiner, or DPE (we’ll call him “Don Giovanni”) on 25 August. According to Federal Aviation Regulations, “Donna” did not have to take the entire checkride all over again; he only had to take the parts he failed PROVIDED he took the retest within 60 days. “Donna” met with his instructor for the remedial training and was signed off on 28 September to retake the checkride. Because of high demand, “Don” was not available until 27 October. Close, but “Donna” was assured by his instructor that 27 October was within the 60 day window. The Wednesday before the checkride (24 October), “Donna” was informed (by the instructor we might add, not by “Don” himself) that “Don” had to cancel, claiming that he was double booked. Apparently “Don” had two calendars, and didn’t realize he was double booked until three days before the checkride. Since “Don” was the only examiner that served the helicopter school, and “Don” didn’t even try to find a substitute to cover the checkride for “Donna,” and no other examiner could be found on such short notice, the 60 day window closed, and “Donna” was forced to retake the entire checkride all over again. We here at CoBaD wonder how many other students the egregious “Don ‘No Bueno’ Giovanni” screwed with his calendar gaffes (Incidentally, “no bueno” was an expression he used on the initial checkride. It’s also grammatically incorrect, but we’ll save that discussion for some other time.)

This skit also takes a jab at multitasking. According to the American Psychological Association (2006), multitasking is where someone tries to perform two tasks at the same time, switch from one task to another, or perform two or more tasks in rapid succession (say, solving math problems or classifying geometric objects). Multitasking doesn’t work for humans because humans are intrinsically monotaskers. When humans attempt to multitask, they have longer reaction times, make more errors, and lose time switching from one task to another (and they lose even more time when the tasks increase in complexity). This is why talking on the cell phone whilst driving 30 miles per hour down the road is frowned upon; losing just half a second in task switching can make the difference between life and death. So if you come across a job posting which mentions the word “multitasking,” don’t apply for it. The company’s essentially saying that it’s too cheap to hire two people to do a quality job; it would rather pay a single employee to do a crappy job, then throw him under the bus when he screws up. See the articles below for more information on how multitasking works (or to be more precise, how it doesn't work):

https://www.verywellmind.com/multitasking-2795003

https://www.apa.org/topics/research/multitasking

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/science-clear-multitasking-doesnt-work/

https://asana.com/resources/multitasking

https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/PBR.17.4.479

In those rare cases (approximately 2.5%, according to Watson and Strayer, 2010) when an individual does have the ability to multitask (also known as a “supertasker”), he may be tempted to add more tasks. But when the cumulative demands of the tasks (or load) becomes too great (i.e., “task saturation”), he will invariably have to “shed tasks,” that is, drop low priority tasks in order to concentrate on the higher priority tasks.

An even bigger problem lies when people apply multitasking at an interpersonal level, like “Don” did in this sketch by rapidly switching between roles of an examiner (conducting private pilot and instrument checkrides), a student (participating in a DPE Practical Test) and as a interviewee at a job interview (with Mr. Statue of Commendatore Airlines). Interpersonal multitasking is not so much dangerous as it is dehumanizing. By reducing his appointments to mere tasks, the designated pilot examiner demeaned everyone much in the same manner that Mozart’s Don Giovanni demeaned women. In the real life inspiration for the skit, when the calendar “demand” became too great, “Don” simply “shed,” or brushed aside the “nuisance” “Donna Elvira” like he was a low-priority task, showing no concern for the consequences of his task shedding, very much in the same manner that Mozart’s Don Giovanni brushed aside the “nuisance” Donna Elvira (see Act 2, Scene 2).

The perils of multitasking lie beyond poor performance. Too much multitasking can result in burnout. Note that Don Giovanni behaved very much like a burned out “task saturated” multitasker, specifically in his inability to concentrate; he lost track of his surroundings (he had to be reminded the checkride had just started when he had thought it had finished) and he had to be reminded by Donna Elvira how to answer even the most basic small talk-type questions from his three other simultaneous meetings. Even after shedding the “Donna Elvira task,” he still couldn’t maintain attention on Donna Elvira because he had his head buried up his portable electronic devices (note that the Don Giovanni in this skit, like his 2018 counterpart, did not have a single integrated calendar, otherwise he would have spotted his schedule conflicts much sooner). So basically, the upshot of all this is that the only task interpersonal multitaskers are good at is failing to be interpersonal. So while it may appear that you have an interpersonal multitasker’s undivided attention; it’s very likely you don’t. Their attention, like Don Giovanni himself, is just a masquerade.

References to “Don Giovanni” (music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte):

Giovanni: “…under my fertile talent…” - From Act 2, Scene 1. Spoken by Don Giovanni upon seeing Leporello, disguised as Don Giovanni, attempting to seduce Donna Elvira.

Giovanni: “Over eighteen hundred…” - Leoprello’s estimate of Don Giovanni’s conquests from Act 1, Scene 2 (”Thus he has consoled eighteen hundred”), although it’s clear from the Catalogue Aria (see below) that the total number of seductions is a lot more (2,065 according to the libretto).

Giovanni: “One thousand and three in Spain alone…” - A reference to the famous aria in Act 1, Scene 2 “Madamina, il catalogo è questo” (“My dear lady, this is the catalogue”) sung by Leporello to Donna Elvira. The aria is also known as the “Catalogue Aria.”

Giovanni: “As I always say, ‘He who remains faithful to one is being cruel to the others’…I have an overabundance of sentiment…” - From Act 2, Scene 1.

Giovanni: “You’re not my first screwing, you know. I’ve literally got a catalog of them.” - Another reference to the Catalogue Aria.

Giovanni: “I’m not even gonna think so much as bolting for the airlines until I’ve dumped you off on another examiner…Mr. Leporello I think his name is.” - Alludes to Act 2, Scene 1 where Leporello, disguised as Don Giovanni, attempts to woo Donna Elvira and lure her away from her house so that Don Giovanni can seduce Donna Elvira’s maid.

Giovanni: “I’m sorry, I was looking at my two cell phones, tablet and smartwatch. Did you say something?” - Giovanni clearly wasn’t paying attention to Donna, who was obviously mad by this point in the skit. Compare with Don Giovanni’s line in Act 1, Scene 3 to Don Ottavio and Donna Anna: “She’s mad, pay no attention…”

Giovanni: ”Almost time for coffee and desserts! Don’t wanna miss out on those chocolates, ices and sweets, you know.” - From Act 1, scene 5. At a ballroom in Don Giovanni’s house, Don Giovanni and Leporello use coffee, chocolate, ices and sweets as a means to seduce Zerlina, whom Giovanni later attempts to assault in a private room. So at this point in this skit, it appears that the hunter Don Giovanni has now become the hunted.

Donna Elvira: “Certainly…Let’s shake on it!” - Alludes to Act 2, Scene 5, where Don Giovanni takes the hand of the Commendatore and descends into hell.

Donna Elvira: “As I always say, ‘e de' perfidi la morte / alla vita è sempre ugual!’” - The last two lines in the opera. Translated: “And in this life scoundrels / always receive their just deserts!” Get it? Ha! Ha!

Thanks to DM’s Opera Site for posting Da Ponte’s libretto of Mozart’s classic opera:
www.murashev.com/opera/Don_Giovanni_libretto_Italian_English