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I'm pretty sure this is related in Peopleware (if you haven't read it, you should), but I'm not sure. My copy is in the office. A group of programmers were as

I'm pretty sure this is related in Peopleware (if you haven't read it, you should), but I'm not sure. My copy is in the office. A group of programmers were asked whether they preferred music or not as they were programming. They were then separated into two groups, each group having roughly equal numbers of those who did prefer music while programming, and those who didn't. Group A was then played acceptable music as they solved a programming problem, and gropup B was left in silence. As I recall, the only programmers that performed badly were those who preferred silence, but were played music. That's pretty reasonable. If you prefer music but get silence, apparently it doesn't matter too much. If you prefer silence but get given music, apparently it damages your productivity. But there was a twist. The programming task given was a series of transformations to a set of data, and was designed so that the net effect was to return the data to its original form. The only programmers who noticed this were in the group without music. OK, so the conclusions are clear. Based on this story, half-remembered from a book, without references, and without detailed data about the experiment, we can conclude that if you're happy with music then it won't hurt your productivity, but ... The suggestion is that there is some part of your creativity that is inhibited by having music on, whether you prefer music or not. This doesn't, of course, address the issue of using music to mask background noise and distractions, and there are many, many points to make, but it's interesting. Some references on the net: Slides 16 and 17 from http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~tyson/classes/630.s07/11.pdf http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~tyson/classes/630.s07/11.pdf Search for the reference to Peopleware on: http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware1/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=12313&ixReplies=29 http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware1/default.asp?cmd=... http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.593799.37 http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.593799.3...

throw_away 17y ago
it would be interesting to see if there was a difference between music with words and music without-- whether the words themselves occupied a part of the brain that could otherwise be used toward the task at hand. I listen to music when I code, but only fast-paced instrumental-only music. the music I like is not especially popular (or listenable, some might say), so I don't think I would like a communal music system regardless of the content.
- bkudria 17y ago
  In our office, most of the engineers vote for electronic or techno, (with the occasional rock/metal song), so that seems like it might be significant.
bkudria 17y ago
Interesting. In our case, all the engineers wanted to play music, so the point is slightly moot. It'd be interesting to upload some silence mp3s and see if they get voted for.

throw_away 17y ago

it would be interesting to see if there was a difference between music with words and music without-- whether the words themselves occupied a part of the brain that could otherwise be used toward the task at hand. I listen to music when I code, but only fast-paced instrumental-only music. the music I like is not especially popular (or listenable, some might say), so I don't think I would like a communal music system regardless of the content.

bkudria 17y ago
In our office, most of the engineers vote for electronic or techno, (with the occasional rock/metal song), so that seems like it might be significant.

bkudria 17y ago

Interesting. In our case, all the engineers wanted to play music, so the point is slightly moot. It'd be interesting to upload some silence mp3s and see if they get voted for.