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Just Wear Headphones

mattblodgett.com

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Re: Just Wear Headphones

#101

Post by phlyingpenguin »

MetaCosm wrote: post #81

I HATE open offices, but man is this article full of absolute nonsense. I mean that in a very literal way -- it has lots of stuff that can not be made sense of because it lacks context or any actual meaning. > I stress to my patients and the parents of my patients that if you can’t hear anything going on around you when listening to headphones, the decibel level is too high. This is just stupid. It ignores type of he…

> There exists multiple categories of music WITHOUT WORDS! Shocking I know. Most developers I know listen to these types of music because, lyrics are distracting. That isn't a cut against headphones.

None of those sorts of music work for me... should I still wear headphones to fix the open office?

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#102

Post by sliverstorm »

dominotw wrote: post #56
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 ?

Most hearing loss is

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#103

Post by squigs25 »

For these reasons I have been using ear muffs (similar to the ones you would use for lawn mowing). Currently I am using Howard Leight Sync. It's basically an "over the ear" ear plug when it's not on. You can also use them as poor quality headphones.

It gets hot, but it seems to be one of the best solutions I have found.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#104

Post by dpark »

tezza wrote: post #59

"[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…

Those are not headphones. Those are in-ear earbuds. They likely block (physically) conversations much more than they cancel them.

I have over-ear noise-cancelling headphones and they don't do a lot for conversational tones. They're great for planes, and they're great for mowing. They don't do much for people talking nearby (beyond the passive blocking they do) unless I turn the volume way up.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#105

Post by smcg »

darylteo wrote: post #3

The "being watched" feeling is the big one for me. I don't mind wearing headphones because I love listening to music and I don't listen to it that loudly, but the sensation of feeling someone's eyes on you (to catch you on the split second you've refreshed reddit or facebook or something) is incredibly profound on the time it takes to zone into zen mode. Anecdotally funnily enough, the opposite seems to happen for me…

I don't like having people watching me, but facing other people (just having them in my field of view) is even more distracting.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#106

Post by s73v3r »

justonepost wrote: post #14

WFH + Open plans are great and should generally be encouraged. The open plan facilitates communications and general discussion. I encourage my team to spend at least 3 days a week at work during our 'core' time (12-5pm/MWF). It gets a bit noisy and productivity drops a bit, but team morale is good and there is a lot of cross pollination of ideas and knowledge. The only difficulty I've had is nearby teams haven't adop…

How do open plan offices facilitate communicating if everyone is wearing headphones with music cracked up all day? And if you're promoting WFH, then pepper should be using something like email or chat, which means that open plan is unnecessary.

And have you actually done any studies to prove that the cross pollination actually harkens, or does anything?

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#107

Post by corin_ »

[deleted] wrote: post #78
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

I know there are some prescription drugs that can reduce hearing, but they're standard drugs like Ibuprofen, if you're old and take lots of them. I think. I've never heard of any illegal drugs having that effect..

As to RSI being psychological... after Googling around a bit I find a handful of (paraphrasing) "RSI may be to some extent influenced by stress", but nothing that it is 'entirely psychological'? Can you cite sources?

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#108

Post by yarrel »

mpdehaan2 wrote: post #98
MetaCosm wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Focus on noise isolation. Using ER-4P ( https://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones/er4.html ) with triple-flange tips is about the best you can get. Better even than $1000+ customs (exception made for Noble silicon customs).

I mostly have experience with Westone or Shure's, but I like Comply foam tips a lot better - more comfortable, anyway. Worth checking out. http://www.complyfoam.com/

Oh yeah those are really comfortable. I found they broke/wore out quickly though.

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#109

Post by s73v3r »

acconrad wrote: post #7

Now to be fair I am in favor of giving employees isolated rooms to work in, however the reality is that at small startups they simply cannot afford that kind of office space. If you're concerned about noise and also the loudness of music playing in headphones, you can always get what construction workers use to block out noise: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Howard-Leight-Thunder-T3-Noise-Bl... They look pretty intense b…

I do not buy that for a second. And even if true, why is it my concern that they can't afford it? Why should I have to make up for they're shortcomings?

Re: Just Wear Headphones

#110

Post by bryanlarsen »

MetaCosm wrote: post #81

I HATE open offices, but man is this article full of absolute nonsense. I mean that in a very literal way -- it has lots of stuff that can not be made sense of because it lacks context or any actual meaning. > I stress to my patients and the parents of my patients that if you can’t hear anything going on around you when listening to headphones, the decibel level is too high. This is just stupid. It ignores type of he…

"This is just stupid. It ignores type of headphone entirely. "

It sounds pretty smart to me. What else is the doctor supposed to do? Until the silly Beats craze took off, one could have made a statement like that and it would have been accurate for >99% of headphones users. Assuming that the user is listening to the pack-in IEMs (or IEMs with a very similar profile) plugged into a phone or iPod would have been a safe assumption. Sure, an office full of tech geeks won't match, but for the general population of headphone wearers?

And if your phones are more or less sensitive, comparing against pack-in IEMs into an iPod or phone is probably the best way that consumers have of comparing levels.

There probably was such a statement in the original source, but it was probably (rightfully) dropped by the reporters because it would have just confused people

"There exists multiple categories of music WITHOUT WORDS!"

I find such music is also very distracting. I find good symphonic music much more interesting than boring Pop music. Interesting -> distracting.

" the feeling of vulnerability being caused by headphones? It is caused by an open office layout."

IMO, the feeling of vulnerability is caused by the combination of headphones and open layout. Normally you can tell people are behind you because you hear them. If you can't hear them, then you get freaked out and feel vulnerable.

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