diff --git a/blog/images/rise-of-parallelism.png b/blog/images/rise-of-parallelism.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8983c051e Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/images/rise-of-parallelism.png differ diff --git a/blog/rise-of-parallelism.md b/blog/rise-of-parallelism.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5530579bc --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/rise-of-parallelism.md @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ +--- +template: ../@theme/templates/BlogPost +title: Multitasking is dead. Long live parallelism. +description: We spent twenty years learning that multitasking does not work. Agents did not bring it back. They brought parallelism, and most of us confuse the two. +seo: + title: Multitasking is dead. Long live parallelism. + description: Starting a second agent while the first one runs is not multitasking. It is parallelism. Here is the difference, why the old fear does not apply, and where the skill moved. + image: ./images/rise-of-parallelism.png +author: adam-altman +publishedDate: "2026-09-14" +categories: + - technical-documentation:ai-assisted-docs + - redocly:product-updates +image: rise-of-parallelism.png +--- + +# Multitasking is dead. Long live parallelism. + +When I finished college in the late 90s, multitasking was a skill. +People put it on their resumes. +Then the research came in. +Nobody multitasks. +We switch context, and every switch has a cost. +Multitasking became a bad word. + +Now I have agents. +I write a task, an agent starts, and it works for an hour. +What do I do in that hour? + +If I wait, I waste an hour. +If I take a nap, that feels wrong. +If I start a second agent, an old alarm goes off in my head. +Is this multitasking? +Am I about to pay the switch cost the research warned about? + +No. +The alarm is a confusion between two different words. + +## Two words, two things + +**Multitasking** is one person who splits attention across two active tasks. +The tasks live in the person's head. +The cost lands on the person. +The research on this is correct and still holds. + +**Parallelism** is many workers who each hold one task. +The tasks live in the workers. +The person holds the queue. +Nobody's attention gets split, because each worker has one thing to do. + +An agent is a worker, not a task. +When I start a second agent, I do not split my attention. +I add a worker. +The thing the research warns about does not happen. + +We already know this from every other kind of work. +A manager with five reports does not multitask. +A conductor does not play every instrument. +We only get confused when the workers are software, because for thirty years software workers did not exist. + +## The archer + +Here is how I think about it now. + +An archer aims, then releases. +All the skill is in the aim. +After release, the arrow goes where the aim sent it. +Nobody tries to steer an arrow in flight. +If the shot was bad, the archer learns, adjusts, and aims the next one. + +An agent run is the same. +The pitch is the aim. +The hours of work are the flight. +If the pitch is wrong, the output is wrong, and no amount of steering mid-flight will fix it. +But a pitch is small. +Two people can read it in ten minutes and find the bad assumption. +The output is large and already committed to that assumption. + +So put the attention at the aim. +Review the pitch, not the flight. +Ask the questions before release. +What is the target? +How will we know we hit it? +Where will this go wrong? +Then release, and reach for the next arrow. + +An archer carries a quiver for a reason. +Many arrows in flight. +One aim at a time. +That is parallelism in one picture. + +## The fear is a signal + +People who fear starting several agents often skip the aim. +They release quickly, then feel the weight of every arrow in flight. +The fear is correct for their process. +But the answer is not fewer arrows. +The answer is better aim before each one. + +If you cannot start a second task while the first one runs, look at how you started the first one. +A task you can start in parallel has a precise target and a stop condition. +If it does not, you did not aim. +You threw. + +## Embrace it + +The question "what do I do while my agent works" has an answer. +You aim the next one. +That is not multitasking. +That is the job. + +We spent twenty years learning to do one thing at a time. +That lesson was right for a world where we were the only workers. +That world is over. +The new skill is not focus on one task. +It is aim, release, and the discipline to aim again.