The Quiet Ones • Hacker News Board

Re: The Quiet Ones

#361

Post by orta » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 8:28 PM UTC

gordonguthrie wrote: post #325

scott_s wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to this, I've discovered what I can and can't listen to depending on the task. When I'm writing, I can't listen to music with lyrics or podcasts. That's not too surprising, since I'm obviously using the parts of my brain related to processing language for my work, so I can't process language in the background. When I'm doing grunt-level programming or debugging, I can listen to music with words or podcasts. B…

I read Oliver Sachs Musicophilia: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sack... In it he points out how some people with Alzheimers or other degenerative brain damage can use familiar music to co-ordinate a sort of 'flow' a rhythm of activity. When I am coding it is like this. I can put on a familiar record that know back to front and then suddenly it is over and I haven't heard any of it but it has…

I'm the same, I just have the same playlist on repeat for months, thanks for the link to the book!

Re: The Quiet Ones

#362

Post by geebee » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 9:00 PM UTC

jsolson wrote: post #341

Sander_Marechal wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My work place is the same. I really didn't like it in the beginning. But I have learned to love it. I have noticed that I am far more productive there than at my previous job where they had an open plan office shared by both developers and noisy sales people. I have taken the quiet attitude home as well. I used to have the radio or TV on all day long when I was working on my computer. Now I turn everything off when I…

I think noisy sales people would drive me crazy. If we leave the door open to the team room we can hear recruiting right outside. Very nice people, but I have even more trouble concentrating when they're on the phone all day. Then again, that's focussed noise where I can easily pick out entire conversations. By contract, the coffee shop I'm in right now is full of a wild cacophony. So much noise that none of it forms…

I remember that the Sun Microsystems drop in office in SF had a "quiet room" that the developers loved. No phones at the desks, and absolute quiet. But disagreements would break out when the spaces outside were all taken up and sales people needed a seat. Some just yakked. Others brought in cell phones and felt that as long as they used a hushed voice, they were honoring the silence. Other people felt that allowing a cell phone to ring and then taking the call outside the quiet room as you talked counted as quiet.

The office manager ruled with an iron fist, fortunately, and she really didn't care if someone didn't like her, so these folks got the boot. She saved that quiet room, as far as I'm concerned.

Re: The Quiet Ones

#363

Post by mgkimsal » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #345

mgkimsal wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

noticed this 110% percent - I started wearing earplugs pumping whitenoise a few years back to help sleep - I need these things all the time now - I have whitenoise running probably 18 hours per day now (except when I'm driving).

I would imagine that exposing yourself to noise (on high volume?) 18 hours a day would cause permanent hearing damage.

18 is possibly the high end, but probably 6-8 per day, plus sleeptime, and it's never 'loud'. I've wondered about hearing loss, but I've done it for a few years now and have not noticed any loss (what did you say?) ;)

Re: The Quiet Ones

#364

Post by alextrob » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 9:14 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #279

koide wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, true silence is so rare, it is perceived as noise.

In fact, true silence will make you insane. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation Can't find the article right now, but they once put people in a completely soundproof room; their minds started to make up sounds and increased their hearing sensitivity to the point where they could hear their own muscles move. I believe the longest one lasted 45 minutes.

This may be the article you were looking for: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2124581/The-w...

Re: The Quiet Ones

#365

Post by innguest » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 9:17 PM UTC

ganley wrote: post #312

shanelja wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My trick is to use http://rainymood.com - the background noise of a storm is surprisingly peaceful.

... with noise-canceling headphones. I just discovered these a couple of years ago, and I was - am still! - positively shocked at how well they work.

Can you say which brand/model left you positively shocked? I'm still skeptical of those and would love to be proved wrong.

Re: The Quiet Ones

#366

Post by philsnow » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 9:48 PM UTC

A "finger-pressed-to-lips" icon is shown at the very end of the article. As much as some HN denizens like to obsess over detail and polish (especially in iconography), how can everybody not have noticed that the hand is facing the "wrong" way?

Nobody shushes by putting their own hand in front of their own mouth like that, they turn it 90 degrees. The only time the pictured arrangement happens is when you put your finger on another person's lips, a very intimate and unmistakable gesture.

Re: The Quiet Ones

#367

Post by bazzargh » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 10:18 PM UTC

I gave up reserving seats in the quiet car after last time - a man sat next to me and handed his grandson (aged 3 or 4) a Bopit. Yes, one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH4XHwefPVY

There followed a short argument where I questioned why he would book the quiet car in advance and give the kid a toy where noise was the point of the game, and not, say, a colouring book.

Anyway. It's just less stressful to be in part of the train where noise is expected, because I have /never/ been in a quiet car which didn't have people on mobile phones, clacking keyboards, and kids with headphoneless gameboys.

Re: The Quiet Ones

#368

Post by darkarmani » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 10:44 PM UTC

Actually, the article has it wrong. The signs on the quiet car say this: "Please refrain from loud talking or using cell phones in this car."

They don't say you need to whisper. I only remember because I saw people shushed that weren't loudly talking and glanced up at the sign to double check if you weren't allowed to talk at all and the sign only mentions "loud talking."

Here's a link with a picture: http://roiword.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/conflict-and-the-qui...

Re: The Quiet Ones

#369

Post by philsnow » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 11:06 PM UTC

bonobo wrote: post #323

furyofantares wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of an anecdote from Feynman about what sorts of mental things he could and could not do while counting seconds, and how it was different for different people. His counting was internally verbal and he could do anything that didn't require him to speak or anything else that was internally verbal. On the other hand, a mathematician he knew was able to do lots of mental things while counting that Feynman…

Some nights, when I lay on my bed trying to sleep but my mind is still racing, I try to calm down by counting or something that requires concentration in order to forget everything else. I noticed how I cannot count without having another train of thought talking or replaying a song I was listening to the same day. It's like having two threads running in parallel. Trying to count visually is almost impossible, I lose…

Have you tried thinking about the process of breathing ?

Ask yourself, "how do I know I am breathing?": there is some physical sensation that tells you that you're breathing, whether it's a whistling noise in your nose, the feeling of air rushing past the tip of your nose or the back of your throat, the feeling of wanting to return to the neutral position that your ribs give you during a deep breath.

For a lot of people, just one of these sensations is the most dominant one. If you can pick one, just lie quietly and concentrate on it and notice it every time you take a breath.

This process is more about noticing sensation than doing any kind of cognition, so I find it very useful when trying to take a mid-day nap (I haven't had trouble sleeping at the end of the day since I had children, funny that).

Re: The Quiet Ones

#370

Post by kahawe » Mon, Nov 19, 2012, 11:13 PM UTC

dschiptsov wrote: post #278

kahawe wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiously enough, this Sartre quote (originally l'enfer, c'est les autres ) is used in a very different sense from what it originally meant. Typically people like to quote it as an allegedly-educated way of saying all people are annoying - when originally it was nothing but the end of Sartre's novel "No Exit" in which one of the main characters is baffled by the fact that hell doesn't need torture devices but just a…

A little bit broader interpretation, it seems, also valid.) Actually it was a weak joke, paraphrasing pg's passage about ordinary people.

I think it is just a wrong interpretation, really, because people present it as if "even" Sartre said all people are hell, whenever they are feeling reclusive or disappointed in humanity.

None of that is in the original quote since it is way more specific and context-oriented.