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Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

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Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

#1

Post by throwaway-x »

Over the past couple of years mechanical keyboards have soared in popularity among engineers. Rightfully so! Owning a custom piece of beautifully crafted equipment is delightful!

However if you own one of the loud ones and want to be considerate to your coworkers, I implore you to not use them at the office. The sound is so loud it pierces through noise cancelling headphones, and it's not fun to have to blast music all day just to cover up the sounds of typing.

There are some options if you want a quieter mechanical keyboard (https://www.electronicshub.org/best-quiet-mechanical-keyboards/) or you can get the o-rings to dampen the sound of the switches on your current model (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00K73IE1C).

Truly not trying to be a dick writing this, I really get the excitement! But the sound has been driving me up the wall, and I can't be the only one.

Re: Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

#3

Post by al_borland »

In my old office pretty much everyone had a mechanical keyboard, so no one minded. One guy actually made it his mission to have the loudest one, but it didn't stand out from the back that much. The loudest typer was actually just a heavy handed guy using a cheap rubber dome board that came with the company computers.

I like being able to type while I'm on a call. I have Cherry MX Clears what o-rings, which people tell me they can't hear when I'm on the phone. So that's good.

Re: Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

#6

Post by EddieDante »

This is one reason I refuse to go back to on-site work. I've got one of Unicomp's New Model M keyboards. Lovely piece of equipment, but if I didn't know better I could swear it had actually been manufactured by the Kalashnikov Concern in Russia because it can get that loud when I'm in the zone. You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Re: Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

#8

Post by smt88 »

elmerfud wrote: post #2

Good thing you work in 2022, because back in the day I guess you wouldn't have been able to be employed in an office environment.

> back in the day I guess you wouldn't have been able to be employed in an office environment

The idiotic transition to "open offices" (places where people work without walls or even cubicles separating them) has led to an enormous amount of noise pollution that didn't exist in the past.

Re: Tell HN: Don't bring your loud mechanical keyboard to the office

#9

Post by smt88 »

Zekio wrote: post #7

honestly for me mechanical keyboards make an office bearable since it drowns out people talking and shuffling around and being actually distracting in the background

Over-the-ear, noise-cancelling, isolating headphones (like the kind Sony and Bose sell for $300-400) are absolutely worth the cost if you're going to work in that environment.
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