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> In fact, von Neumann claimed to do some of his best work in noisy, chaotic environments such as in the living room of his house with the television blaring.
by JetSetWilly 5y ago
> In fact, von Neumann claimed to do some of his best work in noisy, chaotic environments such as in the living room of his house with the television blaring.
I often think of this when people claim it is impossible to conceive of any advanced thought in an open office or noisy environment. In fact, it is just a personal preference and one environment isn't necessarily any better than another.
- blacktriangle 5y agoNot impossible, just impossible for them. First, the difference between the television blaring and my office talking is that in office chatter I'm constantly picking up bits of sound that make my brain think I should be paying attention to them. The sounds of a Simpsons rerun I've seen 90 times don't distract my brain in the same way. Second, we're talking about what works for MOST people, Peopleware has actual data to back this up, the majority of people need quiet private space to do deep work.
- KineticLensman 5y ago> in office chatter I'm constantly picking up bits of sound that make my brain think I should be paying attention to them Agree. I found that hearing my boss on one side of a phone call where they referenced me or my work in some way was very distracting. What had happened? What was going to happen? What was I potentially being committed to?
- fastasucan 5y agoI find it the opposite. To work in a noicy environment is obviously so remarkable that its worth writing about.
- bytematic 5y agoSomething that greatly surprised me when I worked in my first open plan office was that I didn't prefer any headphones or earbuds of any kind. I kind of melted into my work and sometimes looking up at people walking by or various smells, sounds, etc. would keep my mind active.
- insickness 5y agoActually it is not just personal preference. I remember reading studies that show that school children perform worse when there is background noise. Here's one article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201807/surprising-reason-why-learning-is-harder-noise https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201...
- bananabiscuit 5y agoI’m not trying to single you out but I think you are making an incredibly common mistake that I see everyone make all the time, and it almost never gets called out, so I’m going to do it here now: Just because a study finds that some cause, on average, has some effect, I don’t think it is correct to start believing that that cause and effect will hold for you or any else in particular. I’m convinced that for you noise is distracting, and that it is probably the case for most people, but I also totally believe that for some people it can work the other way around. I don’t think you can use the aggregate result of a study to argue against somebody else’s personal experience.
- insickness 5y ago> Just because a study finds that some cause, on average, has some effect, I don’t think it is correct to start believing that that cause and effect will hold for you or any else in particular. Where did I say this at all? This is a straw man. The original comment stated, without any evidence at all, that noisy, chaotic environments aren't necessarily worse. I stated, with evidence, that it has been shown to have a negative effect on average. No where does this preclude that it may help some people or have no effect on some people.
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoI find noise distracting when things are not working, and I believe they should be working, and this process has been going on for a while. Otherwise I find noise sort of calming.
- pmoriarty 5y agoOn the other hand, there is evidence that a certain amount of noise helps creativity: [1], [2] [1] - https://medium.com/s/how-to-design-creative-workspaces/how-noise-can-improve-your-creativity-980bd82f278 https://medium.com/s/how-to-design-creative-workspaces/how-n... [2] - http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665048 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665048
- spaetzleesser 5y agoI think it's about choice and control. I often listen to podcast interviews while working from home but it drives me crazy to have other people talking next to me or walking by behind me when I have to work in a cube. I can turn off the podcast when I want to but not the people talking next to me.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- randompwd 5y ago> such as in the living room of his house with the television blaring. The environment is still under his control. Not at all like an open office.