The Autumn of the Multitaskers
"Neuroscience
is confirming what we all suspect: Multitasking is dumbing us down and
driving us crazy. One man’s odyssey through the nightmare of infinite
connectivity"
-and while reading this, remembered a nearly century old Strand Magazine article about THE ULTIMATE MULTI-TASKER: HENRY KAHNE.
I blogged about Mr. Kahne before, making the argument that multitasking can help keep about-to- doze-off-drivers more wakeful. Now looking at this again, see that the Copyright is due to expire in a little over 3 years.
For now, here's the gist of it, with a link to the original 1925 article:
Strand Magazine (October 1925)
"The Man With The Multiple Mind"
An Interview with Harry Kahne, Whose Brain can do Six Things at the Same Time
By Fenn Sherie
When I first heard of his existence I was (as the reader may be at present) a little dubious. However, now that I have witnessed his public performance, put him through several private tests and chatted with him regarding his remarkable talents, I am in a position to state the facts.
His name is Harry Kahne, his age is 28, and his native land is America. He has a charming personality, a nasal accent, and above all, a wonderful brain.
His demonstrations of multiple mind concentration have to be seen to be believed, but the reader will gather some idea of his remarkable abilities from a careful study of the accompanying photographs with their descriptive captions.
Whether he is performing before music hall audiences or learned professors of psychology, Mr Kahne has the happy knack of keeping his audiences amused as well as amazed. Even whilst jotting down rows of figures, writing them upside down and backwards, he manages to maintain a steady flow of amusing chatter.
"Will somebody please call out a number?" he asks. "You may call out your age if you like. Ladies may call out the age of their lady friends."
And whilst he is writing out news headlines backwards and doing difficult mathematical calculations at the same time, he continues to invite questions from members of the audience, to all of which he has a ready reply.
"Talk to me! Talk to me!" he pleads.
"What is the population of Manchester?" shouts a voice from the back of the hall.
"The population" --- he writes two letters and adds a figure --- "of Manchester" --- he writes two more figures and another letter --- "is 730,551. Anybody else? Talk to me!"
"Are you married?" shouts a girl in the gallery.
"No", he answers, promptly, jotting down a word as he talks; "It’s my work that makes me act like this."
And in his final demonstration of "word-juggling", clearly explained in the photograph on the next page, he maintains the interest by hanging upside down and reciting a poem!
"That boy will go mad", said a woman sitting behind me in the theater where I first saw Mr Kahne perform.
"He is a genius", exclaimed a gray-haired gentleman who looked like a medical man."Very wonderful, but he won’t live long", he added, shaking his head.
But to talk to Mr Kahne is to discover that, although he has exceptional abilities, he is not by any means a freak. If he displays genius, it is not the kind that is akin to madness, but rather of the more creditable variety, generally spoken of as "an infinite capacity for taking pains".
Strand Magazine article continues here:
http://www.rexresearch.com/kahne/kahne.htm
Now, back to my other six works-in-progress...
No comments:
Post a Comment