4 ms·

For me it's not about the noise, it's about whether or not the noise is in fact, just noise, or if it's interesting enough to draw my attention. Random convers

For me it's not about the noise, it's about whether or not the noise is in fact, just noise, or if it's interesting enough to draw my attention. Random conversation in a coffee shop or cafeteria? No problem. People discussing the latest episode of my favorite TV show? Distracting. Instrumental music, or songs I've heard a million times before? Just noise. A new song with interesting lyrics, or a personal favorite I've been really into lately? Distracting.

imglorp 9y ago
Coworkers discussing an issue I'm working on? Super distracting.
- wccrawford 9y ago
  Discussing anything, for me. I never know if it's something I should be listening to or not. It might become important. Now, since my solution is to shut my door, you'd think I could just say, "Yup, nothing matters" and ignore it. But it just doesn't work that way.
  - tclancy 9y ago
    Right, it's whether or not I can put the conversation into a context. If not, it's just noise. If I can organize it or think about how accurate the information is, you have my un-un-divided attention.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    Ideally, if it's something important to you, your coworkers should get your attention, or at least communicate the results of their discussion to you. But I realize that this is supposing two idealized coworkers in a perfect vacuum.
  - abainbridge 9y ago
    In the open office environment I used to work in I got quite good at ignoring coworkers discussions about stuff they were working on. But as they crammed more and more people into the building, the probability of being within earshot of multiple discussions at once went up. I could sit in my chair getting angry when there was only two. When it got to three concurrent discussions I found I had to leave the vicinity. Some people could ignore it all. Impressive.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  Yes, but I'd argue that would be an argument in favor of open offices - overhearing things that are relevant to you and/or you have knowledge of allows you to jump into the conversation and participate.
  - jacalata 9y ago
    Yes, it does. God forbid I wanted to work on something and not keep listening to the five nearest conversations in case they are relevant to me, though. Why would I ever need to focus on anything at work?
    - dkersten 9y ago
      > keep listening to the five nearest conversations in case they are relevant to me What if the relevant conversation is the 6th nearest? Uh Oh! My point is that open office doesn't really help because you can only really pay attention to the people relatively close to you and then only X conversations at a time anyway (for me, X is usually 1). Any other conversations happening anywhere else, I will miss. Better would be a "remote work friendly" culture where discussions happen in slack or somewhere async like that. You can then check it when you're not trying to focus and you won't miss things simply because of proximity. Best of all, you don't get distracted from your actual work when you try to focus. > Why would I ever need to focus on anything at work? Exactly... better not do any work so you can pay full attention to what everybody else is doing, in case something is relevant to what you're not doing...
- antisthenes 9y ago
  Someone mentions your name in passing? Good-bye productivity.
ctdonath 9y ago
Instrumental music, or songs I've heard a million times before? Just noise. That's why I listen to techno/trance music. High energy, but intended as pure background, always changing but never distractingly so. Enhances an experience/activity, but never demands your attention; not something you can sit down and listen to for its own sake.
- ship_it 9y ago
  I've heard this from many developers. I love technowave for that reason.
- thatcat 9y ago
  >not something you can sit down and listen to for its own sake I used to use techno for strictly background/energy, but have come to enjoy some artists independently. Mostly in the IDM subgenre; Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Koyxen, and Square Pusher have a solid mix of enjoyable music that doesn't distract.
patpending 9y ago
I'm in total agreement. I'd add that for me the worst kind of distraction is having a co-worker talking about something interesting on the phone. As focused as I try to be, I find my brain defies me and tries to fill in the half of the conversation that I can't hear. Also, I'm a native English speaker. I speak very little Spanish, but when my co-workers converse in Spanish my brain gets completely sidetracked trying to understand what they're saying. It's even worse with they're speaking Spanish on the phone. It's as if when I can only hear or understand part of the conversation my undisciplined brain sucks up loads of CPU cycles trying to fill in the gaps. So I picked up a pair of sound cancelling headphones and block everything out with white-noise or music. But now my ears sweat...

imglorp 9y ago

Coworkers discussing an issue I'm working on? Super distracting.

wccrawford 9y ago
Discussing anything, for me. I never know if it's something I should be listening to or not. It might become important. Now, since my solution is to shut my door, you'd think I could just say, "Yup, nothing matters" and ignore it. But it just doesn't work that way.
- tclancy 9y ago
  Right, it's whether or not I can put the conversation into a context. If not, it's just noise. If I can organize it or think about how accurate the information is, you have my un-un-divided attention.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  Ideally, if it's something important to you, your coworkers should get your attention, or at least communicate the results of their discussion to you. But I realize that this is supposing two idealized coworkers in a perfect vacuum.
- abainbridge 9y ago
  In the open office environment I used to work in I got quite good at ignoring coworkers discussions about stuff they were working on. But as they crammed more and more people into the building, the probability of being within earshot of multiple discussions at once went up. I could sit in my chair getting angry when there was only two. When it got to three concurrent discussions I found I had to leave the vicinity. Some people could ignore it all. Impressive.
Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Yes, but I'd argue that would be an argument in favor of open offices - overhearing things that are relevant to you and/or you have knowledge of allows you to jump into the conversation and participate.
- jacalata 9y ago
  Yes, it does. God forbid I wanted to work on something and not keep listening to the five nearest conversations in case they are relevant to me, though. Why would I ever need to focus on anything at work?
  - dkersten 9y ago
    > keep listening to the five nearest conversations in case they are relevant to me What if the relevant conversation is the 6th nearest? Uh Oh! My point is that open office doesn't really help because you can only really pay attention to the people relatively close to you and then only X conversations at a time anyway (for me, X is usually 1). Any other conversations happening anywhere else, I will miss. Better would be a "remote work friendly" culture where discussions happen in slack or somewhere async like that. You can then check it when you're not trying to focus and you won't miss things simply because of proximity. Best of all, you don't get distracted from your actual work when you try to focus. > Why would I ever need to focus on anything at work? Exactly... better not do any work so you can pay full attention to what everybody else is doing, in case something is relevant to what you're not doing...
antisthenes 9y ago
Someone mentions your name in passing? Good-bye productivity.

ctdonath 9y ago

Instrumental music, or songs I've heard a million times before? Just noise. That's why I listen to techno/trance music. High energy, but intended as pure background, always changing but never distractingly so. Enhances an experience/activity, but never demands your attention; not something you can sit down and listen to for its own sake.

ship_it 9y ago
I've heard this from many developers. I love technowave for that reason.
thatcat 9y ago
>not something you can sit down and listen to for its own sake I used to use techno for strictly background/energy, but have come to enjoy some artists independently. Mostly in the IDM subgenre; Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Koyxen, and Square Pusher have a solid mix of enjoyable music that doesn't distract.

patpending 9y ago

I'm in total agreement. I'd add that for me the worst kind of distraction is having a co-worker talking about something interesting on the phone. As focused as I try to be, I find my brain defies me and tries to fill in the half of the conversation that I can't hear. Also, I'm a native English speaker. I speak very little Spanish, but when my co-workers converse in Spanish my brain gets completely sidetracked trying to understand what they're saying. It's even worse with they're speaking Spanish on the phone. It's as if when I can only hear or understand part of the conversation my undisciplined brain sucks up loads of CPU cycles trying to fill in the gaps. So I picked up a pair of sound cancelling headphones and block everything out with white-noise or music. But now my ears sweat...