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I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

nytimes.com

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Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#211

Post by jonnathanson »

All the more reason why the "standard layout" of cubicle farms in modern offices really, really sucks for people whose jobs involve continuous, unmolested concentration. Sure, there are benefits to being in close proximity and to collaborating. But sometimes people just need to focus.

While it's not exactly cost effective or feasible to give every programmer, designer, writer, etc., a private office, it should be a priority to have designated quiet spaces. Something as simple as a conference room that you turn into a quiet zone, almost like a small library.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#212

Post by 6ren »

Two words: white noise.

My favourite is the linux SoX (Sound eXchange). sudo apt-get install sox with this command (which varies the sound, rain-like):

  play -t sl -r48000 -c2 - synth -1 pinknoise tremolo .1 40

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#213

Post by asdasf »

hvidgaard wrote: post #187
robomartin wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your answer. Yes, lawns waste water. They also require fuel burning machinery to maintain, causing pollution. And then there are the chemicals (fertilizers, weed killers, insect control, etc.). Go back one more layer and you have the sod farms which use water, fuel, chemicals, etc. And I am sure the chain continues for another layer or two.

All of what you add is entirely optional. It is possible to keep a "nice lawn" around your house, without use of fuel and chemicals. Water however is mandatory if it's not raining enough.

Water is not mandatory at all. Grass with a healthy, deep root system will survive extended droughts just fine. It just turns brown and people don't like that.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#214

Post by InXorWeTrust »

osekkat wrote: post #141
InXorWeTrust wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> places like a noisy restaurant or cafe. This is an opinion, but it seems this can make it easier for some. Because it's a constant noise that doesn't often change much, you eventually tune it out. It feels like it's the sudden change in ambient noise that causes a break in concentration. I use white noise, or a rain noise generator (they both do well for me) to get this same effect while studying.

Would love to know which white noise generator you use. I use "nature sounds" from spotify (usually beach sounds, lakes, birds chirping etc...)

http://simplynoise.com/

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#215

Post by asdasf »

VLM wrote: post #209

If "paleo" concepts apply to food, why not thinking? Its very interesting that we've existed as thinking animals for a lot longer than "office jobs" have existed. From an evolutionary perspective, our best thinking was almost certainly done in near perfect silence or at most calm animal noises. Hmm, we're tracking that yummy large mammal and I'm hungry, whats the next move? So I hear my neighbor chipping away quietly…

>If "paleo" concepts apply to food

There is no evidence that they do.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#216

Post by VLM »

dllthomas wrote: post #210
VLM wrote: post #209

If "paleo" concepts apply to food, why not thinking? Its very interesting that we've existed as thinking animals for a lot longer than "office jobs" have existed. From an evolutionary perspective, our best thinking was almost certainly done in near perfect silence or at most calm animal noises. Hmm, we're tracking that yummy large mammal and I'm hungry, whats the next move? So I hear my neighbor chipping away quietly…

I'm not sure your examples of our most demanding thinking are accurate. Mightn't those historically have been social? In which case voices might very well have been part of the environment.

No, silence is vital for hunting. Also if a possible mate or friend is talking to you, its not exactly helpful to be daydreaming about growing seeds or moon phases. If you're doing hard manual labor while visualizing a simpler way to do it, you're probably breathing too hard to talk.

I will give you credit that sometimes ancient humans probably had to think pretty hard while talking. Planning a hunt. Trying to organize sleeping arrangements. Primitive military operation planning beyond the level of a crude bar fight (so they basically stole one of our proto-cows, can we take them and how?)

(I should edit this to remove the second paragraph, upon contemplation, that's not thinking while talking, thats concentrating hard on listening to the other person in order to plan how to manipulate them, which is at cross purposes to writing great code or daydreaming as the original topic... We've had strong evolutionary pressure to think very hard about verbal language we hear, which isn't going to help much when I'm trying to debug something while some sports water cooler conversation is going on)

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#217

Post by [deleted] »

hvidgaard wrote: post #187
robomartin wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your answer. Yes, lawns waste water. They also require fuel burning machinery to maintain, causing pollution. And then there are the chemicals (fertilizers, weed killers, insect control, etc.). Go back one more layer and you have the sod farms which use water, fuel, chemicals, etc. And I am sure the chain continues for another layer or two.

All of what you add is entirely optional. It is possible to keep a "nice lawn" around your house, without use of fuel and chemicals. Water however is mandatory if it's not raining enough.

[deleted]

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#218

Post by vonmoltke »

kamaal wrote: post #97
IvyMike wrote: post #21

So I can't find an online reference to this anywhere, but years ago I read a relevant anecdote about (I'm pretty sure) Isaac Asimov. He used to go into the most noisy environments he could find to write; places like a noisy restaurant or cafe. He found that this forced him to focus in a way that a quiet environment did not. For example, in a quiet environment, you occasionally still hear sounds, but it's rare enough…

Ha! The term 'distraction' is defined as 'A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.' Note, distraction specifically refers to a thing that 'divides your attention' in other words a 'distraction catches your attention'. If you surround yourself with 100 people doing things no way connected to you- and are pretty busy and loud, you are essentially isolating yourself! Have you ever had…

You can file my response in the "Everyone is different bin", but here is my situation:

> Note, distraction specifically refers to a thing that 'divides your attention' in other words a 'distraction catches your attention'.

Almost everything catches my attention.

> If you surround yourself with 100 people doing things no way connected to you- and are pretty busy and loud, you are essentially isolating yourself!

No, I will have 100 extra things to try and pay attention to. That what everyone else is not connected to me is irrelevant. Think of it as subconscious people watching on steroids.

> Have you ever had that 'I feel lonely in the crowd' feeling?

No, actually I find crowds to be disorienting. The louder and denser the crowd, the more severe my disorientation. I can also get tense, dizzy, and nauseous.

> Walk into a hall full of accountants and tax consultants, and then try to code. Tax laws will seem so alien to you, and those guys will be so busy talking and chatting aloud. You will essentially be isolated and that will help you focus. On the other hand, walking into a room full of programmers or some topic in which you like. You will never be able to give your full, and will always have a tendency to eavesdrop on some ones conversation and that will tapping into your mental bandwidth.

I cannot selectively ignore conversation based on the subject. Any signal I can separate from the background takes bandwidth, because I can't resist paying attention. Additionally, "uncooperative" sounds make me tense, if for no other reason than I have no control over them.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#219

Post by kgermino »

pasbesoin wrote: post #83
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…

At this point, I'd gladly take the leaf blower. Car stereo sub-woofers and straight pipe Harleys: Two things that, in my opinion, should be outright outlawed. Live on a street where they are frequent, and your life will be difficult. Live next to someone who tinkers on them incessantly, and your life will be hell. Work is another problem. I wore out my health trying to cope with the "standard environment". (Which, of…

>straight pipe Harleys

I live in Milwaukee. Harley's 110th is here this week(end). I made a point to stock up on sleep over the weekend :)

Seriously, that "Loud pipes save lives" thing is such bullshit. Hearing a bike coming from a mile away is not the same thing as seeing where they are. And then at 2am the bars close and everyone goes outside to see whose bike is the loudest...

I like bikes, probably going to buy one someday, but modding your bike specifically to see how loud you can make it is unbelievably obnoxious.

Re: I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.

#220

Post by ja30278 »

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…

This is one of those insane comments that I only ever see on hacker news.

Who gives a shit how they pick up leaves in Europe? Picking up leaves isn't some artful process..it's drudgery which consumes some amount of my (finite) life, and which technology has provided a quicker solution.

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