Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just Wear Headphones

mattblodgett.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 217 posts

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#51

Post by marknow »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #30
Raphmedia wrote: post #22

Wear earplugs and then put your over the ears headphones over them. The sound of your music should still get through (mostly from around the ear, through your skull). I do that with classical music and it makes the music sounds like it's coming from very far. It's very zen. Like sitting in the void while having music come to you from a distant area.

You shouldn't be using earplugs, though - I take it you're talking about something you actually put inside your ear. If you ask your doctor, they'll tell you never to put anything in your ear that's smaller than your elbow (I think it's an in-joke in the medical profession ;-)

Actually, earplugs can be very effective when paired with headphones, I would think... I used them while flying in the military (under a flight helmet) to cut out excess noise while still enabling me to hear essential radio chatter.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#52

Post by JoshTriplett »

dbcooper wrote: post #11

I've found Music for Programming's mixes to be pretty good. http://musicforprogramming.net/ Dream Chimney's mixes on soundcloud also. https://soundcloud.com/the-dream-chimney In general, something classical, ambient, or minimal techno fits the bill.

Music for Programming has some interesting stuff, but personally, I need to systematically avoid anything with lyrics to have a hope of being productive while listening.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#54

Post by drzaiusapelord »

kazinator wrote: post #48
hoggle wrote: post #29

At age 32 my hearing is apparently at the level of a 66 year old. I'm not much of a concert attender nor drug user so the only real explanation the doctor could give for my disappointing audiogram was my habit of regularly working with headphones on (I always took care of moderate volume, mind you). I wasn't expecting this result at all, I actually thought my hearing was perfect but hearing loss starts at the highest…

Get a second opinion. Maybe they are trying to sell you on expensive hearing aids. It's also possible you didn't ever have great hearing. (Do you have any "before" audiogram to compare against, from when you were a child?)

Uh, seriously? Right now we have a huge public health issue with young people and hearing loss. It isn't some scam. Turns out the ipod/iphone revolution came with some external costs.

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/one-billion-young...

"If a person takes a subway to go from one place to the other for half an hour in the morning and a half an hour in the evening, and every day has to turn up the volume on his device because there is so much of noise of the train and everything around, and is listening to - let us say 100 db (decibels) for one hour every day, his hearing is going to get irreversibly damaged in a few years, in a couple of years time, for sure."

---

Instead of subway, replace that with loud open-plan office and instead of one hour per day, replace that with 8+ hours. I think we need to address hearing damage the same way we started addressing RSI in the office back in the 80s. There are a lot of people who have no idea how much they are damaging their ears.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#55

Post by [deleted] »

hoggle wrote: post #29

At age 32 my hearing is apparently at the level of a 66 year old. I'm not much of a concert attender nor drug user so the only real explanation the doctor could give for my disappointing audiogram was my habit of regularly working with headphones on (I always took care of moderate volume, mind you). I wasn't expecting this result at all, I actually thought my hearing was perfect but hearing loss starts at the highest…

[deleted]

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#56

Post by dominotw »

hoggle wrote: post #29

At age 32 my hearing is apparently at the level of a 66 year old. I'm not much of a concert attender nor drug user so the only real explanation the doctor could give for my disappointing audiogram was my habit of regularly working with headphones on (I always took care of moderate volume, mind you). I wasn't expecting this result at all, I actually thought my hearing was perfect but hearing loss starts at the highest…

Thats crazy, I am sorry. Is the hearing loss irreversible ?

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#57

Post by josai »

A pair of Bose QC25's has been my most objectively productive purchase this last year. I highly recommend anyone in an open plan office to buy some, or something like them - they're expensive but worth every cent.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#58

Post by Raphmedia »

darkmighty wrote: post #49
WallWextra wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of things about working in an office that are unhealthy, but you have to do what you have to do.

Isn't one of those over the ear muffs a lot better? http://www.amazon.com/Protection-Professional-Folding-Padded... Judging by how it seems to be the most used in industrial applications.

Those are also a very good alternative to what I do.

I use earplugs with over the ears headphones.

You could instead use over the ears noise protection with little in-ear headphones inside.

The only reason I don't do that is that my headphones are worth $1000+ and I wouldn't want to trade them for earbuds. Otherwise, your idea could very well be superior to mine!

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#59

Post by tezza » 

  "[Noise Cancelling Headphones] So while it may work to cancel the noise
  of your office air conditioner, it’s powerless against the voices of your co-workers
  (the real noise you’d want to cancel in an office environment)."
Um, this doesn't match my experience at all. My Bose noise cancelling headphones[1] are really effective at cancelling conversations.

Not completely cancelling mind you, but All-But-Cancelling.

You are playing music then too which further removes the voices, and you can play at a much lower volume for similar block-out-effects.

This does lead to some hilarious Boss-at-Shoulder moments when they have come to get your attention.

[1] https://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/home-and-personal-audio/headpho...

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#60

Post by chrisbennet »

I'm not sure that employers that have open plan offices are actually "clueless". It apparently works well enough that they don't mind the productively hit. I think it is easier for developers to believe that their employers are clueless than to believe the truth - that they've weighed that costs and decided that disrespecting developers is worth the cost savings.

The open plan office sends the message: "To us, you're not a thinker [we have management for that!], you're just an expensive typist." The exception to that would be an startup that is forthright about needing the cost savings and doesn't try to sell this lack of respect as a "feature" (ease of collaboration!).

Post reply on HN