I see lots of strategies for dealing with noise, so here is one of mine. I got a pair of one of those industrial ear protectors, the kind that carpenters or co

I see lots of strategies for dealing with noise, so here is one of mine. I got a pair of one of those industrial ear protectors, the kind that carpenters or construction workers wear. Then I use simple in-ear buds and listen to ambient music or jazz. Anything without vocals. I use this setup pretty much anywhere I am around annoying sounds and it's pricelessly quiet. I've tried numerous noise cancellation BS headphones and none of them can come close. On airplanes it's like entering a warm cocoon of sound that allows me to forget I'm there. I can listen to an airplane movie soundtrack at the lowest possible volume and hear nothing else. The only problem is when the captain pipes up and blasts me away with some stupid announcement. So I keep my hand near the socket to remove the plug and when I hear the click of the captain's mike I immediately unplug. Forget about these overpriced over engineered noise cancellation whatever devices. My low tech solution is way better for concentration and it costs only around $50-$70. I've actually had people ask me what kind of noise cancellation headphones I'm using when wearing my ear-muffs. I even had a guy in a datacenter ask me if they were USB enabled ;)