5 ms·

Don't bother reading this article. The "solution"presented is to install red/green lights at your desk to signal to people not to walk up and interrupt you. Th

Don't bother reading this article. The "solution"presented is to install red/green lights at your desk to signal to people not to walk up and interrupt you. That isn't the problem. The problem is NOISE, NOISE EVERYWHERE!

chinathrow 10y ago
It's indeed the noise. I work in a co-working space for a few weeks now - the noise is unbearable. Also, prepare for lots of folks with hearing issues once the headphone overuse kicks in. It won't be pretty.
- redwards510 10y ago
  When I was younger, I was perfectly happy to listen to music all day long while coding. Now I find even that distracting and need quiet. It seems insane that in order to do our job effectively we have to put headphones on and play white noise!
anonymish 10y ago
Yes, tuning out other conversations around me takes a lot of my energy to where I trudge through the day and want to go to sleep when I get home. I find when I work in a space by myself I am energized and productive. I'm currently at a desk by two other devs who have to talk to each other all day and I'm considering leaving an otherwise great job because of it.
sean_patel 10y ago
The solution is to penalize the offenders, in a nice way. I interned at Goldman Sachs on an FX trading floor (very open plan). We had an Interrupter Jar. Everytime someone interupted another person, the interrupter was required to put 20$ (yes 20$, it's chump change for FX Traders) into it. When it filled up, we'd go out and buy beers for the entire team. It worked quite well until we had a fratboy from Boston College. He would interrupt me just so he can fill up the jar and we go drinking.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  > He would interrupt me just so he can fill up the jar and we go drinking. Now that's a pathological case.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dang 10y ago
From the HN guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized. I share your feeling about noise, and so does the person who wrote that guideline. But allcaps is noise in its own right.

chinathrow 10y ago

It's indeed the noise. I work in a co-working space for a few weeks now - the noise is unbearable. Also, prepare for lots of folks with hearing issues once the headphone overuse kicks in. It won't be pretty.

redwards510 10y ago
When I was younger, I was perfectly happy to listen to music all day long while coding. Now I find even that distracting and need quiet. It seems insane that in order to do our job effectively we have to put headphones on and play white noise!

anonymish 10y ago

Yes, tuning out other conversations around me takes a lot of my energy to where I trudge through the day and want to go to sleep when I get home. I find when I work in a space by myself I am energized and productive. I'm currently at a desk by two other devs who have to talk to each other all day and I'm considering leaving an otherwise great job because of it.

sean_patel 10y ago

The solution is to penalize the offenders, in a nice way. I interned at Goldman Sachs on an FX trading floor (very open plan). We had an Interrupter Jar. Everytime someone interupted another person, the interrupter was required to put 20$ (yes 20$, it's chump change for FX Traders) into it. When it filled up, we'd go out and buy beers for the entire team. It worked quite well until we had a fratboy from Boston College. He would interrupt me just so he can fill up the jar and we go drinking.

tedmiston 10y ago
> He would interrupt me just so he can fill up the jar and we go drinking. Now that's a pathological case.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dang 10y ago

From the HN guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized. I share your feeling about noise, and so does the person who wrote that guideline. But allcaps is noise in its own right.