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I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

nytimes.com

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Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#121

Post by Groxx »

nnq wrote: post #110
pg wrote: post #68

It's so true. I can do routine work with noise, but not the kind that requires insight. The sad thing is that noise is yet another example of the phenomenon of "the tragedy of the commons." Which means things tend to get noisier and noisier. In fact, what has surprised me most about living in Palo Alto is how noisy it is. You'd think living in the suburbs would at least be quiet. It is on weekends. But the problem wi…

Leaf blowers used by homeowners or the people paid to take care of their gardens are one of the most "typically American" and absurd and annoying things. You almost never hear/see these things around Europe, except some similar contraptions use to take care of very large city parks, for which they probably make sense, and even then they are used at reasonable hours. I mean, using a powered leaf blower to help clean u…

When you're paid to clean leaves off multiple front yards? 15 * yards * days used per year = a whole lot of time. It's really not surprising that they pick what works quickest.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#122

Post by abraham_s »

westicle wrote: post #109
stephth wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would work for the rest of my life to pay for a device that turns my ears off temporarily. YC2020?

I will save you the rest of your life's labour. http://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-MAX-1-plugs-Uncorded/dp/... You're welcome.

I tried a similar product, but the silence became unnerving in 10-15 minutes.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#123

Post by taroth »

taroth wrote: post #78
pg wrote: post #68

It's so true. I can do routine work with noise, but not the kind that requires insight. The sad thing is that noise is yet another example of the phenomenon of "the tragedy of the commons." Which means things tend to get noisier and noisier. In fact, what has surprised me most about living in Palo Alto is how noisy it is. You'd think living in the suburbs would at least be quiet. It is on weekends. But the problem wi…

You might hope that we would become habituated to reoccurring noises in our environment, but the opposite has been shown empirically. [1] The study showed that while regular office workers become habituated to office chatter after 20 minutes of exposure, their habituation resets to baseline after only 5 minutes of quiet (measured via memory tasks). The irregularity of the noise is what kills us. The only effective so…

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xap/3/3/181/

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#124

Post by Groxx »

chrismealy wrote: post #91
pg wrote: post #68

It's so true. I can do routine work with noise, but not the kind that requires insight. The sad thing is that noise is yet another example of the phenomenon of "the tragedy of the commons." Which means things tend to get noisier and noisier. In fact, what has surprised me most about living in Palo Alto is how noisy it is. You'd think living in the suburbs would at least be quiet. It is on weekends. But the problem wi…

Leaf blowers are seriously fucked up. http://www.nonoise.org/quietnet/cqs/leafblow.htm

"Leaf blower motors are inordinately large emitters of CO, NOx, HC, and PM according to a study conducted for the ARB (5). Two-stroke engine fuel is a gasoline-oil mixture, thus especially toxic. Particles from combustion are virtually all smaller than PM2.5. According to the Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much smog as 17 cars."

Yeah, it's things like that that make me wish we could just outright ban all two-stroke engines. See also those gas scooters that occasionally go by - it's incredible how much stink they produce (and conversely, how incredibly clean-burning cars are now). At least there aren't too many of them.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#125

Post by vacri »

Every time a siren shrieks on the street, our conscious minds might ignore it, but other brain regions behave as if that siren were a predator barreling straight for us.

It's worth mentioning that a siren is specifically meant to pull your attention. It's not really the same as a constant background susurrus.

I work in the heart of a city, and there's a constant babble of traffic and pedestrians a few floors below. That's fine and can be tuned out - the noise that's distracting me from concentration is random loud office noise. Noise that can't be filtered out as 'background'.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#126

Post by nnq »

Groxx wrote: post #121
nnq wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaf blowers used by homeowners or the people paid to take care of their gardens are one of the most "typically American" and absurd and annoying things. You almost never hear/see these things around Europe, except some similar contraptions use to take care of very large city parks, for which they probably make sense, and even then they are used at reasonable hours. I mean, using a powered leaf blower to help clean u…

When you're paid to clean leaves off multiple front yards? 15 * yards * days used per year = a whole lot of time. It's really not surprising that they pick what works quickest.

So the root of the problem is that people are paying other peoples to clean their yards... guess it's the same "hidden cost / side-effect of externalizing things".

That's why I try to stick to the "keep as many things in-house as possible", both for my household and family and for my business :)

EDIT+: I think the so called "american way of doing things" is so successful business-wise exactly because of the "externalize as much as you can" philosophy, but it kind of fails big when the hidden costs of externalization are non-financial and manifest themselves as "lower quality of life" or "worse health" and at the same time get offloaded to other people than the ones doing the externalizing (like to the neighbors of the people that pay companies that use powered leafblowers to clean up their yards).

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#127

Post by agumonkey »

HCIdivision17 wrote: post #45
agumonkey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the noise/age relation lies a little frequency thing, when you don't have regular event of mind-flow, you care about not disrupting them. A dev I know and I experienced another strong disrupting setup: having unsimilarly thinking person near you (colleagues, parents). Their mere presence shuts you down even if they make no sound. As soon as they left, your mind fills the room. Comparing airport (place) with train…

You're absolutely right about the comparison. My bad.

No problem

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#128

Post by interpol_p »

I really like background noise when I work, as long as it's nothing that I can focus on.

Just the wind blowing, birds making noises outside, or the clinking and chatter at a cafe. I find that I work about 50% faster in those environments.

When there's dead silence or music I am much slower and more easily distracted. Also far less creative for some reason.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#129

Post by [deleted] »

nnq wrote: post #126
Groxx wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're paid to clean leaves off multiple front yards? 15 * yards * days used per year = a whole lot of time. It's really not surprising that they pick what works quickest.

So the root of the problem is that people are paying other peoples to clean their yards... guess it's the same "hidden cost / side-effect of externalizing things". That's why I try to stick to the "keep as many things in-house as possible", both for my household and family and for my business :) EDIT+: I think the so called "american way of doing things" is so successful business-wise exactly because of the "external…

[deleted]

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#130

Post by robomartin »

pg wrote: post #68

It's so true. I can do routine work with noise, but not the kind that requires insight. The sad thing is that noise is yet another example of the phenomenon of "the tragedy of the commons." Which means things tend to get noisier and noisier. In fact, what has surprised me most about living in Palo Alto is how noisy it is. You'd think living in the suburbs would at least be quiet. It is on weekends. But the problem wi…

I hate front lawns. With a passion. But, guess what, I had to fall in line and make mine "pretty", put in some sod and match the rest of the neighborhood. For now I have the greenest and neatest front lawn on the block.

Why? We have a culture where you lose value if you adopt arid climate landscape when people expect grass and flowers and that's what everything around you looks like. We had a nice arid climate front yard with rocks and plants that required zero water and maintenance. We refinanced and the bank actually objected to the look of the house. They said it looked unkept. Unbelievable. The arid landscaping cost me thousands. It just didn't match the rest of the homes on our street. So the friggin sod had to come in.

I find it beyond moronic that we are actually throwing water at the ground to grow grass. Then we come back a couple of times a month and use gasoline to cut, trim and blow it clean. The only thing worst is owning a swimming pool.

I refuse to be a weekend lawn-mower monkey. I've never had any interest in that and never will. I'd rather be doing a million other things than pushing a mower on a pointless patch of grass. Yup, that means we now have a gardener with the dreaded gas powered leaf-blower, mower and trimmer. I am not proud of this at all.

So, here's the plan: I planted fruit trees right smack in the middle of the lawn areas. Once they grow beyond a certain size they'll kill-off most of the grass. That's when I go back to practical landscaping. And, of course, I'll be producing some fruit as well which is neat.

If I absolutely have to I am going with plastic grass in the front and will learn to love it.

The back of the house is now 100% concrete, soon to be covered with solar panels for both shade and off-grid power. Great for entertaining and hanging out. Our local parks have plenty of grass if we feel the need.

My gardener is a few months away from being out of a job. I wish more people would wake up and realize what they are doing.

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