I know the first part of your statement is half a joke but I want to address it anyways. The issue at hand is that human beings can’t multitask so any distract

I know the first part of your statement is half a joke but I want to address it anyways. The issue at hand is that human beings can’t multitask so any distraction from the main task leads to poorer performance. The sudden entrance of a beauty, loud noises (open offices), bright lights, stress can all be forms of distraction and minimizing those can be as useful in the long term for performance as minimizing more overt distractions. Your brain can ignore all of the above to a certain extent if it’s chronic. Which is why beauty becomes banal, open offices tolerable, and stress simply something to be banked away until vacation or burnout.