This is one of those expressions favoured by corporate types in interviews along with team player, good communicator and purveyor of bullshit.
But maybe there is some foundation of truth in the idea that we are all task driven. We set our own goals and try to stay focused in order to achieve them.
That’s not to say that we are inflexible, far from it. It is our ability to change course midstream and reappraise our goals that differentiates us from most other animals.
Plasticity allows us to engage different parts of the brain simultaneously and even switch areas of the brain that have been damaged with areas not usually associated with those activities.
The man who mistook his wife for a hat is a fascinating book on that subject.
odespinner 