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Everything Is Getting Louder

theatlantic.com

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Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#181

Post by wutbrodo »

From the subtitle:

> The tech industry is producing a rising din. Our bodies can’t adapt.

This is a great article, but did I miss something or is this subtitle more or less irrelevant? The only source of noise mentioned related to the tech industry is the lead-in story's data center cooling system, and 95% of the article has nothing to do with it.

This is interesting to me in and of itself: it's another unfortunate example of The Atlantic's long-established internal struggle between quality journalism and clickbait, but it's also another fascinating data point for how the term "tech industry" has become a universal-purpose scapegoat for the kinds of simpletons looking for simple, singular explanations for all of the world's ills.

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#182

Post by wutbrodo »

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #6

For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…

> And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you are in the next room and trying to sleep it is the main frequency that you hear.

Are you talking about the low-frequency burbling? I have windows that face the street and used to have a sleep disorder that made me more sensitive to noise, and when I'd occasionally sleep in the living room I'd get woken up in the morning by this emanating from my neighbor's apt.

> All of that made me miserable. There were actually moments when this situation triggered suicidal thoughts.

I feel you 100%,its really hard to describe how life-destroying consistent lack of sleep is. Earplugs worked wonders for me (along with the longer term solution of fixing my disorder, but that's not relevant here).

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#183

Post by hackermailman »

jamiek88 wrote: post #168
hackermailman wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, needed editing though I fully sympathize with the people in the author's story. The drug shithole I used to live in after prison was crackheads screaming for hours after blowing up pipes in their face when a rain drop hits it after they heat it up, crackheads getting robbed and fighting all night, shootings, constant ambulance and firetruck sirens for fentanyl ODs, my neighbours door being kicked in by a drug…

And mama cooked the breakfast with no hog.

I know it sounds like bs. But here I am https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-investigate-after-man-found-dea... and I was a witness in this trial my full name in court records avail to anybody https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-province/20080411/281...

you know who I am now, who are you?

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#184

Post by lsc »

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #6

For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…

for me, i personally find that the construction of the apartment matters a lot more than how noisy my neighbors are; I moved from a duplex in a very quiet neighborhood in sunnyvale to an apartment right under the SJC flight path, but the old place was last updated in the '60s and had single-pane windows, while the new place was built in the '80s and upgraded pretty significantly in the aughts. It is rare that I hear noises loud enough to notice over a running fan or air purifier when the windows are all buttoned up.

Double/triple pane windows make a huge difference (as does offset studs drywall standoffs)

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#185

Post by taneq »

Macha wrote: post #53
myroon5 wrote: post #39

The number of appliances that intentionally make noise and cannot be configured to stop making noise irks me. I never want microwaves, dishwashers, laundry machines, etc. to make any noise. Even worse is how many of them continue making noise until you unload them. I'd like to one day be able to run a load of laundry or dishes overnight without being constantly woken up.

I own a washing machine that particularly annoys me. It beeps at the end of the wash, as if expecting you to unload it. It also has a heat sensor tied to the door lock, where it won't let you unlock the door if it's too hot. It also takes 5-10 minutes after a wash to reach a level where it'll let you open the door.

Wait, so it beeps at you for attention and then denies you access? That's definitely a case of asshole design.

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#186

Post by epistasis »

Laforet wrote: post #147
epistasis wrote: post #134

I found this article's style infuriatingly slow. If it had been a quarter or a third of the length I think it would have been much stronger. It took quite a while to figure out what the hell was going on. And then you get to things like this halfway through: > Thallikar took his campaign to his homeowners’ association and to his neighbors. The response was tepid, though he did persuade one person to email the city. W…

I liked the structure and delivery. The writer tries to sound sympathetic and paint the complaints as genuine, but it's delibrately left vague whether the person was misunderstood or delusional judging by the reaction of everyone else in the story. The seek for vindication motivates the reader to follow the text and the payoff was very well executed towards the end. I'm sorry you didn't like it but it doesn't take th…

I'm really glad you liked it! Perhaps I'm being too critical; but in any case not everyone must like something for it to have merit.

I usually really like long form journalism and am glad when I see it these days, but the payoff felt much lower than typical long form for me. There's so much good content these days that even though I wanted to learn about this topic, after several thousand words I didn't feel like there was enough signal to justify the noise. (Excuse the pun)

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#187

Post by wutbrodo »

abjKT26nO8 wrote: post #33
htk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Howard Leight’s Max every night during sleep to keep my sanity.

As blunte pointed out[1], earplugs make the situation worse. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21237273

That's not a general-purpose argument against earplugs, as some people have noise problems in the frequency that they do block out (this was the case for me)

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#188

Post by wutbrodo »

hackermailman wrote: post #183
jamiek88 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And mama cooked the breakfast with no hog.

I know it sounds like bs. But here I am https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-investigate-after-man-found-dea... and I was a witness in this trial my full name in court records avail to anybody https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-province/20080411/281... you know who I am now, who are you?

I don't think that was the implication of the GP comment? I think it was just phonetically riffing off of the "no X, no Y" structure of the end of your comment, in reference to Ice Cube lyrics:

> No barking from the dogs, no smog, and mama cooked the breakfast with no hogs

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#189

Post by switch007 »

brendanw wrote: post #152
spodek wrote: post #91

I live across the street from a firehouse in Manhattan. They are noisy and politically untouchable so calling 311 doesn't help. They test these devices to get through doors that are basically chainsaws every day at random times. I once asked a fireman why they test them daily. He said, "It would be a shame to find out it didn't work when we got there." I asked innocently, "When you test it, you know it works, but as…

I vaguely recall reading a few articles about how firehouses are less necessary as we have less fires today, but we struggle to reduce their numbers as they are heavily unionized. This is the narrative I at least have floating in my mind. https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/19/palo-alto-cuts-11-fir...

This is a UK perspective but IMO much of the reduction in fires has been because of the work done by the Fire Brigade. Education, information campaigns, pushing for reforms, calls to action etc. Any reduction in numbers – and the manner in which it happens (in case it has a multiplying effect of disuasing new recruits when they're actually needed) – should be done very, very carefully.

Re: Everything Is Getting Louder

#190

Post by arp242 »

epistasis wrote: post #134

I found this article's style infuriatingly slow. If it had been a quarter or a third of the length I think it would have been much stronger. It took quite a while to figure out what the hell was going on. And then you get to things like this halfway through: > Thallikar took his campaign to his homeowners’ association and to his neighbors. The response was tepid, though he did persuade one person to email the city. W…

> > Thallikar took his campaign to his homeowners’ association and to his neighbors. The response was tepid, though he did persuade one person to email the city.

> Which makes it seem like it's just the personal bugaboo of one person rather than a serious problem, and having read far too many words already I just want to give up.

Later on it tells that other people complained too, an organisation gets set up, the company replies, etc.

But yeah, I agree, too much narrative. Some is good, but this is too much.

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