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Music to Let you Concentrate

focusatwill.com

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Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#141

Post by gbog »

porker wrote: post #131
shrikant wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree with this. Even if it's only ambient music (mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5872706 ), I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. Otherwise I greatly prefer silence. My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's alrea…

> I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. I'm sorry, documentation requires less concentration? I find (I hypothesize) that because I'm doing something which balances the hemispheres more (and requires me to get inside the head of my user) music doesn't work for documentation, it's too distracting. Programming yes, ambient works well, but writing...

I second this, writing good documentation is harder than writing code. I can do both with music I already know, however, but I will sometime go for a walk or a cigarette, both help a lot.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#142

Post by emp_zealoth »

pyre wrote: post #133
antihero wrote: post #88

I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc - it's rather seedy and excellent in it's own right. Two Lone Swordsmen is okay, too. Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest),…

| Deus Ex: HR soundtrack I went through a phase where I would just listen to the closing credits theme on loop. Another electronic / soundtrack that I have spent a lot of time with is the Tron Legacy soundtrack.

Oh, Tron Legacy OST is the thing! You could also try Doctor Who soundtrack from season 5 and 6, it can do wonders, but sometimes you have to skip at track or two (as they are just too good and make you drop everything you are doing and listen) Bastion OST is nice too!

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#143

Post by Ensorceled »

jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

I've noticed the same effect but kind of the other way around. When I'm doing programming that requires thinking outside the box and creativity, music is ANNOYING and disruptive.

I love listening to music while pixel juggling UI's or fixing bugs but as soon as I start working on a scheduling algorithm or something similar I have to turn the music off.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#144

Post by cboppert »

ctdonath wrote: post #128
jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

Depends on the music. Most pop or classical music demands your attention; you'll pay good money to go to a concert where you sit in a chair and pay attention for a prolonged period. Dance/trance/techno provides high energy as a driver of activity, not a focus; you'll go to an event (dance) to focus on the activity, with the music as background motivation. Hence I listen to trance podcasts, getting the push and occupy…

Hmm, interesting. I always liked listening to classical while studying because there are no vocals, it's very relaxing, it gets rid of the back ground noise, and I can just work away.

But I can see where you'd want to listen to classical, all those ups and downs, it tells a story if you listen closely.

Trance would probably work but I don't tend to like electronic music quite as much.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#145

Post by niels_olson »

shrikant wrote: post #103
jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

I strongly agree with this. Even if it's only ambient music (mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5872706 ), I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. Otherwise I greatly prefer silence. My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's alrea…

I absolutely can't handle lyrics. I think you're right. Those of us who remember using gopher protocol probably grew up listening to radio hits even if we bought the tape or CD, so it was known and in its own way monotonous. But served the purpose of drowning out my brothers or roommate.

Now I don't own a TV and rarely listen to radio, and my tastes have dramasticly broadened, so I almost never listen to the same song more than a handful of times. I find lyrics are a show stopper. Even overly ambitious classical, jazz, electronica trips me up.

Here's a playlist I've been listening to for a while, seeded by, of all things, gopro surf videos, which has become my go-to study set, usually fed in with Bose QC-15s

http://open.spotify.com/user/grep2grok/playlist/1NcLBwixEKqQ...

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#147

Post by simeng »

antihero wrote: post #88

I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc - it's rather seedy and excellent in it's own right. Two Lone Swordsmen is okay, too. Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest),…

I've made a playlist I use with no vocals and mostly repetative electronic music. I think it works pretty well. If you have Spotify you can check it out here: http://open.spotify.com/user/simeng/playlist/0xtZDVR5XpfKGLs...

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#148

Post by crazygringo »

Wow. This seems like a great and interesting product...

But it also seems like the kind of thing any programmer with a decent music collection could throw together as an MVP in a couple of weekends (ignoring music distribution rights, of course).

But it's got quite the large team of people behind it -- I'm very curious to see if this can monetize well. It just seems like such a "niche" product -- like it should be just another channel on Pandora, instead of a whole company in its own right. Seeing that margins on music streaming are generally already so low, I wish I could see their monetization strategy...

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#150

Post by imissmyjuno »

niels_olson wrote: post #145
shrikant wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree with this. Even if it's only ambient music (mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5872706 ), I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. Otherwise I greatly prefer silence. My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's alrea…

I absolutely can't handle lyrics. I think you're right. Those of us who remember using gopher protocol probably grew up listening to radio hits even if we bought the tape or CD, so it was known and in its own way monotonous. But served the purpose of drowning out my brothers or roommate. Now I don't own a TV and rarely listen to radio, and my tastes have dramasticly broadened, so I almost never listen to the same son…

You like your trip-hop.
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