I think some background noise reduces distractions, because it causes our noticing apparatus to raise it's alert threshold, and we no longer notice every tiny micro-noise.
Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
81–90 of 158 posts
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#82I've worked in private offices, cubicles, open plan offices, coffeeshops, libraries, and now many many hours in home both when other family members are around and when they aren't. I spend a lot of time thinking about sound and focus. The conclusion I came to is that humans have a few emotional needs in order to reach deep focus: 1. We need to not be distracted and we need to feel certainty that we will not be distra…
I almost can't work without the radio on. I can buy the comment that said we want people near us to work. I like working at home with the radio on, no one will bug me, but maybe it feels like people are around?
I'm a software engineer. I choose music or silence tactically. If I need to power myself through a task, I use music to do it. If I'm trying to solve a difficult problem or master a complex body of unfamiliar code, I need silence.
Before WFH become the norm in early 2020, there were days when I made no progress at all until everyone else had gone home. The precious hour between 5pm and 6pm -- when the cleaners came and talked to me and broke my concentration again -- was sometimes more productive than the entire day that led up to it.
What also helps, working alone, is the ability to talk out loud to yourself. For me, it's a superpower. I dread losing it if Management decides to pull us all back into the office when the pandemic is over. (Or, even worse, continually talking to myself without realising it. :-))
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#83I've worked in private offices, cubicles, open plan offices, coffeeshops, libraries, and now many many hours in home both when other family members are around and when they aren't. I spend a lot of time thinking about sound and focus. The conclusion I came to is that humans have a few emotional needs in order to reach deep focus: 1. We need to not be distracted and we need to feel certainty that we will not be distra…
This is also why streaming like twitch is so effective as background noise. I can put on a streamer in the background and unlike a podcast, not feel the need to pay attention to what's going on at all.
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#84I've worked in private offices, cubicles, open plan offices, coffeeshops, libraries, and now many many hours in home both when other family members are around and when they aren't. I spend a lot of time thinking about sound and focus. The conclusion I came to is that humans have a few emotional needs in order to reach deep focus: 1. We need to not be distracted and we need to feel certainty that we will not be distra…
Personally, having people around, hearing speech (and involuntarily passively processing that speech), on top of environmental noises, is utterly distracting and hinders any kind of productivity.
While I'm working, preferably alone, ear buds are in and a long instrumental track is played on loop, so that noise is drowned out, don't get distracted by having to select another song, and there's no need for my brain to process speech. It's amazing how well it works in keeping me focused.
As of late, been playing Autechre's "Bike"
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#85I've worked in private offices, cubicles, open plan offices, coffeeshops, libraries, and now many many hours in home both when other family members are around and when they aren't. I spend a lot of time thinking about sound and focus. The conclusion I came to is that humans have a few emotional needs in order to reach deep focus: 1. We need to not be distracted and we need to feel certainty that we will not be distra…
And yet, as a freelancer/work-from-homer, I am told that my coffee shop receipts are not tax-deductible.
Who told you that?
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#86For me, it's not so much noise but temperature and air freshness. I don't know why but if the stale is a tad too stale in my home office I just get distracted and can't focus well so I wind up opening the window before starting work so I can freshen the air and then close it to minimize the amount of city noises from creeping in. But I'll also say sound is important as well. It's why I like having a more clicky keybo…
Have you ever tried to monitor your CO2 levels? I thought it was all about temperature until I got one and learned that my home office climbs up to 2500 ppm. At this level, it creates: "Fatigue, loss of focus and concentration, uncomfortable 'stuffy' feeling in the air"
2500ppm? Good grief.
I notice a slight blunting of my mental edge at about 1000ppm. I always maintain enough ventilation to keep below about 800ppm. I don't guess; I monitor.
At work, in our delapidated office, I've seen up to 1800ppm by lunchtime. No wonder no one can concentrate in there.
It's not cheap, but you can buy heat-recovery ventilation for domestic properties: stale air is pumped out, fresh air is pumped in, and there's a heat-exchanger to warm the incoming air. Typically, air is extracted from rooms such as kitchens, bathrooms and toilets (so that you expel moisture, smoke and odours) and pumped into living spaces such as lounges, dining rooms and bedrooms. It doesn't provide enough air changes per hour to mitigate the danger from Covid-19, but it does do enough to keep CO2 levels down where you want them, and it avoids arguments with people who want to close all the windows and doors because they "don't like a draught".
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#87I think, we should not call a conversation we hear "noise", it disturbs our focus but it's not noise. Noise has no pattern and no meaning. But the most disturbing sound is the sound that repeats in fixed intervals. I believe repeating sounds in high volume is even used as a form of torture. So airplane noise is torture because it's loud and it repeats.
I find a conversation more distracting if it's relevant to me.
If we have to cram developers into open plan offices then each feature team should be dispersed throughout the building, so that the discussions each person overhears are less relevant to the person overhearing them.
Contrarian, or what? :-)
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#88I was really hoping for an in-depth discussion of noise within the brain. Then I was really hoping for an in-depth discussion of how and why certain kinds of noise may be helpful, in both creativity and/or maintaining focus. Its not that I disagree with anything that was written, but I really was hoping for something whose tldr didn't amount to: bad noise bad, good noise good.
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#89I've worked in private offices, cubicles, open plan offices, coffeeshops, libraries, and now many many hours in home both when other family members are around and when they aren't. I spend a lot of time thinking about sound and focus. The conclusion I came to is that humans have a few emotional needs in order to reach deep focus: 1. We need to not be distracted and we need to feel certainty that we will not be distra…
I almost can't work without the radio on. I can buy the comment that said we want people near us to work. I like working at home with the radio on, no one will bug me, but maybe it feels like people are around?
I wouldn't be able to work if the radio was on. I can buy that we want people near us not to feel alone. I get that too when nobody else is in the house and I'm alone and not working. You suddenly focus on a lot of noises you otherwise wouldn't and wonder if they're normal. That cracking noise your roof structure makes in 0F weather? You don't even notice when people are around but you wonder if someone is breaking into your house if you're alone and hear it.
I work best when it's "completely silent". By that I don't mean actually completely silent but I certainly don't want radio or any other kinds of chatter. I also can't stand noise from ventilation, such as the AC. I do know that a lot of people even buy "white noise machines" e.g. for sleeping. I can't understand why people would voluntarily import that kind of noise. I actively try to get rid of it as much as I can, such as turning the AC way up ahead of going to bed and shutting it off for going to sleep.
All that to say that we're all very different. He doesn't state absolute truths.
Imagine sitting in a noisy cafe but still working on your paper because you don’t know anyone and don’t have the context of any discussion.
Re: Why noise is necessary for our brains to perform at a high-level
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We instinctively feel safest when we hear the chatter and hub-bub of relaxed tribemates puttering around nearby. We know we're not alone, that there are others will also be alerted if something happens, and that they also feel safe. I can confirm that is false. If it were an actual instinct, I would possess it as would essentially all people. I do not possess that instinct what-so-ever. I do not gain an increased f…
> The tribe and I are not friends Then they aren't "chatter and hub-bub of relaxed tribemates", rather to you it is "the whispers and noises of your enemies". Of course that wont get you relaxed. The effect comes from hearing people you are comfortable around talking, if you have a distrustful personality then likely you aren't comfortable around many people but the effect is still there, just that you lack another l…
That really borders on the no true scotsman fallacy.
I agree with gp.