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As a graduate student, I was lucky to have an advisor that let me work on research from anywhere as long as I was getting stuff done. I tried to work in the of

As a graduate student, I was lucky to have an advisor that let me work on research from anywhere as long as I was getting stuff done. I tried to work in the office a few times, and a couple loud people made it almost impossible for me to accomplish anything. Coffee shops, despite the presence of ambient conversations, were much more effective for me. I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop noise and office noise — I just know that I can tune the former out, while the latter makes it difficult to concentrate.

Swizec 10y ago
> I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop noise and office noise — I just know that I can tune the former out, while the latter makes it difficult to concentrate. Coffee shop noise is irrelevant, office noise might be relevant. You automatically pay attention even if you don't want to. For me, noise cancelling headphones are a necessity. Impossible to get anything done otherwise.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Exactly this. What finally made me buy a good set of headphones for work was a cow-orker that would regularly come to my office to talk to a colleague about some project. Nothing to do with my work, but the words he used made me involuntarily tune in to the conversation every 10 seconds, just because it sounded relevant.
Eric_WVGG 10y ago
Your office was a couple loud coherent voices. Cafe noise is white noise. Right now I'm in a cafe that has 50+ people and thumping bass music, all sweet white noise. With a beat.
barleymash 10y ago
Have you tried coffitivity.com? Lol every time I tell people I use this, they look at me sideways. I discovered it a few years ago, and still use it just about everyday. It's basically just ambient noises from a coffee shop, and you can choose a couple of different "environments". I pop that on in my headphones, and layer on some instrumental music. I love it.
- Xcelerate 10y ago
  Haha, that's pretty cool actually

Swizec 10y ago

> I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop noise and office noise — I just know that I can tune the former out, while the latter makes it difficult to concentrate. Coffee shop noise is irrelevant, office noise might be relevant. You automatically pay attention even if you don't want to. For me, noise cancelling headphones are a necessity. Impossible to get anything done otherwise.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
Exactly this. What finally made me buy a good set of headphones for work was a cow-orker that would regularly come to my office to talk to a colleague about some project. Nothing to do with my work, but the words he used made me involuntarily tune in to the conversation every 10 seconds, just because it sounded relevant.

Eric_WVGG 10y ago

Your office was a couple loud coherent voices. Cafe noise is white noise. Right now I'm in a cafe that has 50+ people and thumping bass music, all sweet white noise. With a beat.

barleymash 10y ago

Have you tried coffitivity.com? Lol every time I tell people I use this, they look at me sideways. I discovered it a few years ago, and still use it just about everyday. It's basically just ambient noises from a coffee shop, and you can choose a couple of different "environments". I pop that on in my headphones, and layer on some instrumental music. I love it.

Xcelerate 10y ago
Haha, that's pretty cool actually