Evernote CEO Phil Libin argues that spasmodic interactions with the Apple Watch will actually be more in tune with how our brains work naturally. “Our ancestors weren’t working on a document for six hours,” he tells me. Instead, ancient humans’ attention constantly flitted between finding something to eat and checking to see if something was about to eat them. Libin believes we’ll be more productive if we can handle simple tasks in seconds on a watch. And he may be on to something: Studies show that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more creative. Other research, even going back to some Buddhist writings, says five to eight seconds is about the amount of time your brain can hold on to one particular thought.

Of course, somebody at some point has to concentrate long enough to design a skyscraper or write complex code—though even there, the trend is toward dividing big tasks into smaller ones and throwing them to Agile development teams. Fading are the days of attacking a major project like a great white shark hitting a seal. Now the approach has more in common with a school of piranha.

In both business and everyday life, we’re about to see the most intensive demand ever on a limited supply of human attention.