4 ms·
A game in the background provides structure to the noise and, for me, makes "random" background noise more tolerable and ignorable, the same mechanism that help
by rhizome 7y ago
A game in the background provides structure to the noise and, for me, makes "random" background noise more tolerable and ignorable, the same mechanism that helps me focus when I'm listening to regular music.
The thing about offices is that in my experience it's unstructured, so anything that can catch my ear might require my attention, and that takes a lot of focus away from the thing I'm actually trying to do. That is, the psychoacoustic form of the noise makes a difference, at least to me.
- Eric_WVGG 7y agoLikewise. I've worked almost exclusively out of cafes for the past twenty years. I find it akin to white noise.
- rhizome 7y agoAt least for me, that's because you can focus with the knowledge that the background noise will never require your attention. The same is not true for open offices, which is where it breaks down for me. Any voice I hear could be trying to get my attention, and I have to pay attention to it in order to realize that it doesn't.