I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
nytimes.com
I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
1–10 of 252 posts
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#2I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive.
This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#3I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive. This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
There was a study about that. Basically, those who listen to music are more productive but less likely to think outside the box, and vice versa.
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#4I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive. This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
Have you tried grey/pink noise or any of those derivatives?
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#5I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive. This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
I only do this when there's no other choice: I work in an open air office that the startups du jour are so proud of, so I'd rather listen to a coherent stream than dissonant chatter.
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#6I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive. This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
There was a study about that. Basically, those who listen to music are more productive but less likely to think outside the box, and vice versa.
I wonder if the type of music factors into that at all. Ambient background noise I'd assume is a bit different from listening to death metal. I know programmers from both camps.
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#7Interesting, but plenty of examples of just the opposite.
"Von Neumann ... received complaints for regularly playing extremely loud German marching music on his gramophone, which distracted those in neighbouring offices, including Einstein, from their work. Von Neumann did some of his best work blazingly fast in noisy, chaotic environments, and once admonished his wife for preparing a quiet study for him to work in. He never used it, preferring the couple's living room with its TV playing loudly."
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#8I see a lot of developers using earphones and listening to music while doing their stuff. As someone that prefers relative quiet I have always wondered if this makes them more, or less productive. This article would tend to indicate the latter but of course there is a big difference (generally) between music and noise.
As others have said, I think most developers would take a nice, quiet office. Given the horrible open plan office I currently work in, you need some way to drown out other people "collaborating", so headphones it is. Sometimes I just wear the headphones, without any music ;-).
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#9I'll bite. From my biased viewpoint, based on who complains most, people prefer the quiet more as they get older. Kids don't seem to care, middle aged prefer some separation, and my elders can be derailed by a greeting. I've always assumed it was the skill to tune out, but perhaps theirs are weightier thoughts.
Personally, I need some mindless noise in the background, but nothing with any meaningful signal. The noise keeps me slightly alert and keeps the bored parts of my mind busy (like reading ingredient labels in the bathroom). The rest of my mind can then concentrate. When I was a kid, I was a walking hazard if I let my mind wander too much, and have walked straight into walls (I'm assuming sight to be an even higher bandwidth signal than hearing, but perhaps it lacks the same interrupts?)
While complete silence is certainly soothing, it won't spin my mind up either. There's strong utility in getting zeroed out in silence, and I bet it pays off, but I have few opportunities for that (work in a plant, ride a motorcycle, and apartment is near train tracks). But the rumble of the Harley and wind is soothing too; that's where I think or decompress usually.
I find airports nearly impossible to sleep in (two terrible childhood overnight stays). But a train is lovely. One had a detached mumbling voice, the other a lulling rumbling with random clacks like rain.
Perhaps there's some way to run a controlled experiment to figure out if it's the quality of the noise that does it?
Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
#10[deleted]