Do Headphones Help Or Hurt Productivity? 405
Hugh Pickens writes "Derek Thompson writes that there is an excellent chance you are wearing, or within arm's reach of, a pair of headphones or earbuds. To visit a modern office place is to walk into a room with a dozen songs playing simultaneously but to hear none of them. In survey after survey, office workers report with confidence that music makes us happier, better at concentrating, and more productive. But science says we're full of it, writes Thompson. 'Listening to music hurts our ability to recall other stimuli, and any pop song — loud or soft — reduces overall performance for both extroverts and introverts.' So if headphones are so bad for productivity, why do so many people at work have headphones? The answer is that personal music creates a shield both for listeners and for those walking around usm says Thompson. 'I am here, but I am separate. In a wreck of people and activity, two plastic pieces connected by a wire create an aura of privacy.' We assume that people wearing them are busy or oblivious, so now people wear them to appear busy or oblivious — even without music. Wearing soundless headphones is now a common solution to productivity blocks. 'If music evolved as a social glue for the species — as a way to make groups and keep them together — headphones allow music to be enjoyed friendlessly — as a way to savor our privacy, in heightened solitude,' concludes Thompson. 'In a crowded world, real estate is the ultimate scarce resource, and a headphone is a small invisible fence around our minds — making space, creating separation, helping us listen to ourselves.'"
Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:2, Informative)
I would expect
silence > music > office noise
Re:Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:5, Interesting)
silence > music > office noise
I would agree with this, except I would put classical music [classicalforums.com] and/or binaural music [blogspot.com] above silence, as both have been shown to improve concentration and reduce learning and recall times.
Re:Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure the binaural thing has been conclusively shown to have a benefit, but I have found that listening to music with binaural beats does make me feel like my mind is clearer and more capable of extended periods of concentration.
Silence would be best, I think, but the problem with the average office is that it is anything but silent, even when it's quiet. There are keyboards clacking, machines humming, cpu fans whirring and air conditioners blowing.
The main thing I'd like to say about this article is that I'm more concerned about what is making workers happy than what makes them a few percentage points more productive.
Everybody is already plenty productive. Too productive, maybe. Our lives are out of balance when it comes to productivity/happiness. Almost everyone I know could stand to be a little less productive and a little more content.
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That's funny in a sad way, considering how badly corporations have broken THE social contract.
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Where I work headphones are banned for all employees. Why? Because it would be "unfair" to the customer service staff if everyone else was allowed to wear headphones and they were unable to.
I've encountered this position before and it's infuriating. One department can't wear headphones? Okay, compensate them some other way then, either monetarily, or with some small office perk that isn't granted to the rest of the staff. Or tell them to suck it up and get a job doing something else. Different departments *should* be treated differently.
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How is it fair that only customer service is allowed to do customer service?
Re:Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:5, Interesting)
I really don't think you can make a generalization about whether any type of music, even classical, helps or hinders concentration. I'm a musical person -- I've been singing in choirs and barbershop groups almost my entire life -- so I pay *very* close attention to music. I can't help it; even if it's music I can't stand I am compelled to listen closely to the melody (if there is any) and lyrics (if there are any). So for me, any type of background music overrides my ability to concentrate on anything else.
Instead, I listen to music to help ease the boredom of mindless physical work, like my daily walks for exercise or the rare occasion I get out of my chair and do yardwork, etc. Then it doesn't matter that I put my body on autopilot while my brain focuses on the music; in fact it helps because the time goes by so much faster.
There's that old joke about why is it we turn down the radio when we're looking for an unfamiliar street -- it's precisely *because* the music is a distraction. In the same way, whenever I have tried to enjoy my music while I'm working I lose focus and frequently forget where I left off. My attention span is fragile enough without the additional burden of a shiny audible toy.
Which brings me to a refutation of TFS: When I do use headphones, it's not because I am protecting myself from the rest of the world. Rather, it's because I am protecting the rest of the world from me. It's an unwritten social contract: You don't make me listen to that obnoxious rap, and I won't make you listen to the Side Street Ramblers belting out "Bye Bye Blackbird" with a tenor who can shatter the windows in your car.
Re:Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:4, Interesting)
silence > music > office noise
I would agree with this, except I would put classical music [classicalforums.com] and/or binaural music [blogspot.com] above silence, as both have been shown to improve concentration and reduce learning and recall times.
Hmmm... I can't believe I've made it this far into the comments and nobody has mentioned trance (and related electronic genres). Unlike classical, you don't have the dynamics leaving you straining to hear over your co-workers one minute, deafened by a crescendo the next. The repetition and lack of lyrics keep it from being distracting. Just pick something fairly textured and it sublimates all those inane conversations going on around you (as you wonder why you're in the middle of a call center while idiots paid less than you have quiet, private offices so they can do serious intellectual work like making PowerPoint presentations).
Re:Study does not support conclusion in summary (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd have to qualify that with "ambient music I know well". Yesterday when the links to the wonderful kickstarted version of the Goldberg Variations was released, I found myself closing my eyes and just absorbing the music. I opened them about 15 minutes later, completely relaxed, and having accomplished exactly *nothing* in that time!
High energy repetitive ambient house or electronica, with no more than a few meaningless lyrics, stuff I've heard before, those I can work to. Beautifully performed classical music, not so much. Metal would have me reaching for earplugs. Jazz seems specifically designed to break my concentration. Rap makes me flee. And country music actually makes me angry.
I believe that everyone who reads this will have their own very specific, very personal opinions about what is good music to "improve concentration". A poll or study only reveal common traits that indicate what percentages of each genre you should stock in a jukebox, but do not a useful, personalized recommendation make.
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For me I seem to be much more productive with music. Mostly when I am coding. Writing code is rather easy and if I don't have music, my mind will wonder and I will spend more time in my thought then writing code.
Headphones do improve concentration (Score:5, Insightful)
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... compared with the random office noises around you, a reliable predictable set of stimuli is easier to tune out. Music is almost white noise when contrasted with folks taking loud phone calls about medical problems, unattended phones ringing at their desks, and so on.
Here! Here!
And it is doubly important when you're working in a bullpen with a bunch of over-caffeinated, Asperger-ish software engineers.
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:5, Funny)
At least when discussing a story about effects of listening you should get "hear, hear!" right.
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I think you interpreted the post all wrong. They were trying to get your attention so they could put in a slam about developers.
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked in a bullpen in my last job (and this was one of the main reasons I quit without notice one day when I get too fed up with it). The software engineers weren't the problem; they're generally quiet. The problem was all the stupid managers constantly walking by, wanting to stop and chit-chat, or talk with my manager endlessly (he sat across from me), sit their ass on my desk while I'm trying to work, or worse tap me on the back when I had my headphones on. The other problem was the stupid loud air-conditioning unit in the ceiling directly over my desk that would drone for the entire day until 5PM sharp, when it suddenly became much quieter.
I had to stop wearing my headphones because of the assholes sneaking up on me all the time and nearly giving me a heart attack, and it eventually drove me nuts enough that when my manager gave me shit about coming to work too late (staying late to make up for it wasn't good enough for him, even though my productivity was far, far higher after 5PM when the noise and commotion all stopped), I threw a resignation letter at him and walked out.
My advice: never take a job in a bullpen environment.
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:5, Insightful)
How one can concentrate on design, review, or coding of systems with the audio and visual clatter going on in most dev environments is beyond me. Perhaps this explains some of the crappy software out there.
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:5, Insightful)
I share an office with one other guy. We sit in opposite corners, we work quietly, and we get shit done
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My advice: never take a job in a bullpen environment.
But I'm a rodeo clown you insensitive clod!
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:4, Insightful)
I find that my headphones are fine if I have a little mirror stuck to my monitor, so nobody can sneak up behind me. I've gotten to the point where I don't even turn around when talking to people anymore, I just look in the mirror.
It's about 3 inches wide, and its similar to the extra, magnifying mirrors on some cars' and trucks' side mirrors. It (along with headphones) has made my cubicle life a breeze.
Yes and no - see "Peopleware" (Score:5, Interesting)
Consider the results of an experiment I first saw described in Peopleware [javatroopers.com] (scroll down to "Creative Space"). The researchers compared performance at Fortran programming between people in quiet rooms and people in rooms with music. The good news is that performance was about the same. The bad news was:
There was a hidden wildcard. The specification required an output data stream be formed through a series of manipulations on numbers in the input data stream. Although unspecified, the net effect of all the operations was that each output number was equal to its input number. Of those students who figured this out, the overwhelming majority came from the quiet room.
The part of your brain that listens to music is apparently also the part that notices odd things in your code, and it can't do two things at once.
Re:Yes and no - see "Peopleware" (Score:5, Interesting)
The trade-off I've found when programming is that I find it easier to enter into a flow state [wikipedia.org] when I have music playing. That seems to be from a mix of blocking out distractions along with being more upbeat when hearing things I like. Whether things are familiar is key too; music I've never heard before is distracting, it's old favorites that go into my "flow mix".
It's possible for what I'm describing to be true and all of these other results to be as well. I wouldn't expect a programming flow state to be the best thing for either concentration for optimum memory (what's tested in TFA) or for detecting unusual patterns (the Peopleware study).
Re:Yes and no - see "Peopleware" (Score:5, Interesting)
My suspicion: it's less about the type of music and more about the type of task. The tasks you describe are ones where "flow" is known to be particularly useful, and music is known to help get you into flow. Complex analytical tasks, however, are not generally helped by flow (to use the criteria for obtaining flow as described by Csíkszentmihályi such a task lacks clear goals and immediate feedback, two of the most important requirements, and is in most cases at a challenge level slightly beyond typical flow tasks).
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In my experience, I've found that when I'm programming things that require a lot of thought, like a new algorithm, or reading through documentation trying to find an API, music gets in the way. But when I'm coding something that is mostly boiler-plate, like Yet Another Network Messaging System, then music makes me feel good (although I'm not sure it helps me go faster).
That seems to match your suspicion.
Yeah! (Score:2)
I don't know what the article is going on about but my experience is 100% the opposite.
I play crap I like to drown out the distractions. If I played crap I did not like then it would be the distraction.
This has nothing to do with "friendlessly".
A friend of mine kee
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I like music.
I like music a lot more than the sounds of the whirring fans, the babble, and the typing noises.
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ding ding. more or less what I came here to say and what other comments seem to reflect. headphones might not stand up against non-distracting sounds or silence... and if they're piping in pop music for tests i'm sure they might reduce your random number recall. but on a whole it's a study that doesn't reflect something a number of us have experienced to be true... if you want to deeply concentrate on something (writing code, or something else that often benefits from extreme focus)... tuning out one sen
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:4, Informative)
I wear headphones (and usually listen to music when I'm wearing them) to quiet the conversations and noisy distractions, including the ever-present white noise generator, which is designed to drown out the conversations and noisy distractions caused by our open floor plan (no cubicle walls, to facilitate communication), but is so loud that conversations are difficult unless you speak loudly.
Re:Headphones do improve concentration (Score:4, Informative)
Especially if the music is 'nonsense'. I listen to Technobase.fm [technobase.fm] all day long. It's one constant song spun by some DJs in Germany. There are no breaks and songs just flow one to the another. When the DJ does come on he's speaking German so tune him out and since they're matching beats there is almost always a constant beat that I use to type to.
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I agree. My office is an enclosed space where all 6 of us can hear every word the other 5 say. One fellow is extremely talkative, as well as louder than most, whether on the phone, or receiving visitors in his cubical. Some mornings I can go without headphones for an hour or so, while everyone is busy sifting through email, but it is rare to find me without Pandora playing for the rest of the day.
Without headphones I can barely concentrate on anytihng. Between the loud conversation to my left, the loud typi
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I agree. The better solution however is offices with doors. The BS management philosophy that cubes or bullpens are helpful is so obviously wrong that I could never understand how it has come to be so prevalent.
Simple. Cost. Offices with doors cost at least 4 to 5 times as much per employee as do cubicles. They take much more space per person, they take extra heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting costs, and are not flexible when you have to reorg (which every big company seems to do every few years.)
Remember, they've done a study and found that employees are their eleventh-most-valuable asset: somewhere between toner cartridges and copier paper. I suppose that explains why they keep the toner c
Less distracting (Score:2)
Maybe if the office was quieter (Score:3)
I wonder more people using headphones is also a result of the move from dedicated offices to cubicle farms. A lot of the offices I've worked in were so noisy and distracting, I've often used headphones not because I felt like listening to music, but to drown out the noise.
I've seriously considered getting a pair of ear protection headphones like an airport worker and just using those. Or noise cancellation headphones.
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Can highly recommend the noise cancellation headphones / ear buds. I have used them both at work, and when flying (which I had to do a hell of a lot of at once stage in my job). For flying I would often put them on but not connect them to anything - is also great for discouraging conversation (I don't mind a chat on occasions, but not on the 6am flight).
Re:Less distracting (Score:5, Funny)
Finding a quite workplace is not as easy as it should be.
Yes! It's quiet difficult these days.
'pop music'... (Score:5, Insightful)
that's why most people I know that listen to music while working/coding do not listen to pop (or vocal music in general), but to classical, trance etc. also the article says that silence is better than music in general, which is likely true, but among music and office noises (with random conversations/noises) I am sure people are more productive with music vs without
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I will occasionally leave my headphones on with no music, just to not be interrupted (not that it stops everyone). For music, I find that music that I know well lets me concentrate well, where good music that I don't know well distracts. Pop music doesn't generally fit into either of these categories, so I'm not sure of its effect.
Re:'pop music'... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been known to do that. I'd wear noise cancelling headphones, so I don't hear idle chatter, doors opening and closing, phones ringing, or all the rest of the nonsense that is associated with an office. Sometimes I'd have music playing, sometimes I wouldn't.
One thing I was advised about it though was, occasionally I'd talk to myself a little. Usually a "Hmm", or "ah ha", or even quiet rambling about the problem as I was working through it. Since I couldn't hear myself talk, my internal dialogue would sometimes not be internal.
I usually managed to quell interruptions by explaining to people that there is a startup time for doing any work. Interruptions reset that time. So if it takes 5 minutes to mentally get back into what I was doing, and they stop by to ask me something every 15 minutes, they've delayed the work they want done by 20 minutes per hour, plus as long as they were talking. I was always clear to let people know when their request was done, so they learned not to interrupt to see if I was done yet.
They'd also see multiple shells open, all doing something different or pending email responses to complete a task, so their interruptions didn't only hurt task, but others too.
Re:'pop music'... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a similar experience with music. Instrumental music drowns out the office noise and tends to enhance the thought process. Music with lyrics tends to get too distracting. And if it's modern pop music, part of the productivity loss is probably due to having to resist the urge to take out one's own eardrums with a staple remover.
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Agreed. I like a wide variety of music, from thrash/speed metal to hip hop to mbube to electronica, but when I'm trying to be productive, I usually settle in with some ambient techno/downbeat like Morcheeba, Tycho, Bonobo (love love LOVE his Black Sands album, but they're all top notch), Boards of Canada, Little People, and many others. Just recently discovered Washed Out, his Within & Without album is currently blowing my mind.
I just tend to work better when I have something that I can groove to but
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Re:'pop music'... (Score:4, Insightful)
I came here to say this. When a song has vocals (particularly hyper-compressed ones optimized for factory car stereos), I find it impossible to concentrate on anything else but the song. Even driving. Dunno if it's my ADD or if everyone is like this and just don't know it or don't care. If I want music for background noise, I generally reach for trance, downtempo, or pretty much anything that is elelctronic sans vocals.
Typically, I tune into one of several streaming stations, but I also maintain a YouTube playlist called music to hack by [youtube.com] that I sometimes bring up at work when I want to drown out the office jibber-jabber and concentrate to some fairly rocking choons.
Music doesn't help my productivity (Score:4, Insightful)
... but it's a lot less damaging than listening to 6 conversations among people around me. Personally I like "earplug" style headphones which block out most of the noise; then I can use very quiet music to mask the rest.
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Exactly .. also, the isolating headphones allow you to block out all outside sound at much lower music levels, so hearing damage is not as much of an issue. They;re great on buses, etc, as well where you can block out the rather loud ambient noise. When I was commuting on a bus and watching recorded TV shows, I noticed that I needed to have the volume extremely loud to be able to hear things without using isolating headphones. I don't think it would take long before measurable damage was done.
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I swear I am not affiliated to Bose, but I really think the best thing I ever got for myself to aid work was a QuietComfort headset. I used studio Sony's for years and after 3-4 hours my ears/head was hurting from the pressure. I cannot use the in-canal blocking ones (I go nuts, they hurt and fall out) so I needed an other solution. (actually the Bose MIE 2 for iphone is comfy, but it is not blocking, nor has noise cancellation).
For me the around the ear/cup design is the most comfy with active noise cancel
Headphones hurt my productivity. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately I work in an open concept office, so it's either headphones or listen to everything else around me, which is infinitely worse.
Ever notice how the people who decide on an open concept office usually have a door to theirs?
Re:Headphones hurt my productivity. (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately I work in an open concept office, so it's either headphones or listen to everything else around me, which is infinitely worse.
Ever notice how the people who decide on an open concept office usually have a door to theirs?
Best cure for an open office plan is a white noise generator [wikipedia.org]. The first time I heard one in an office I was amazed at how quite it was.
Re:Headphones hurt my productivity. (Score:5, Funny)
Best cure for an open office plan is a white noise generator.
Yes. I often find a 5 MW gas turbine (I like Siemens SGT-100, myself), will drown out most office conversations (But not all - Connie, I'm looking at you!). The exhaust, unless well-vented, will also tend to deaden (in both senses of the word) office noise, as well.
Pink Noise FTW (Score:2)
A Pink Noise Generator is wonderful! ("Pink" noise is a different set of frequency bands tuned to cover up conversation. "White" noise is roughly equivalent to radio static; it sounds a bit harsh.)
When ours shuts off after hours, if I'm still at my desk, you get a weird "open" feeling when it shuts off. And, if somebody else is still there, I can clearly hear them from across the cube farm.
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Best cure for an open office plan is a white noise generator [wikipedia.org]. The first time I heard one in an office I was amazed at how quite it was.
I've found part of what makes it hard is the overall volume of the background noise, air conditioning, machines, etc. This, in turn, causes people to speak more loudly.
Regular headphones with white / pink noise are very loud, and the more noise you add, the more strain it is to listen to.
Noise cancelling headphones by themselves are very effective against the AC, but then voices are even louder. And, to my experience, pink noise doesn't work well with noise cancelling algos. (Noise cancelling headphones by
More to life than productivity (Score:2)
Robots don't need headphones.
Yes. (Score:2)
Listening to music or Talk radio or audiobooks stops me from wasting time on the internet, and thus doing some actual work. (puts on headphones) (resumes coding)
Maybe if... (Score:5, Insightful)
...idiot MBA-wielding managers didn't keep shoving people into morale-destroying open-plan offices, they wouldn't have to wear headphones to get a modicum of privacy.
Re:Maybe if... (Score:5, Insightful)
We ran out of space for private offices so I ended up sharing a single office. We could still close the door however headphones were the only option if my office-mate was discussing something with another employee.
Move forward and there was even less space. The solution? Tear out the offices in favour of an 'open concept' office which would 'improve communication' among team members. I ended up having to wear headphones daily regardless of whether I wanted to.
I ended up leaving for another opportunity and work from home (mainly). Sometimes I play music, sometimes I don't but no headphones (I run proper stereo components). I find it so much more productive because I have the quiet I need for complex problems whenever I want without having to get up and shut a door. Plus I have better lighting (natural daylight!!), better chair (because I'm not a cheap ass and recognize the benefits of a good chair), better keyboard (same deal again). There are a lot of factors in productivity (many of which are environmental), but I'm quite certain any decent dev can tell you want they need to be productive. Not giving them things like a good chair or mechanical keyboard (if that's what they want) due to 'budget' is pure bullshit. If a good developer thinks they need it, they probably do and it will pay back in productivity quickly. Sometimes providing something like a door isn't realistic under the circumstances but if that's the case then why you are providing a sub par work environment needs to be investigated. If you want nothing but the best from your employees then the right environment needs to be provided for those results.
Re:Maybe if... (Score:5, Interesting)
Cube spaces are excellent for various things. You can prepare notes that say "shut up", wad them up, and lob them over the wall without anyone noticing who sent it. When they start getting pissy saying "Who threw the note at me that said shut up?" Everyone else would admit to it.
If they didn't get the clue, a stockpile of "borrowed" desk items (pens, highlighters, staplers, etc) would start following. It only takes a few staplers to the head for them to realize that they're too being too loud.
That, or transcribing their not-work-related conversations, and anonymously sending them to their supervisor.
Is "Recall other stimuli" what matters? (Score:2)
Seems to me like they picked something random that they could measure, and are then trying to generalize it to be something that matters for work. I'm not seeing how the ability to "recall other stimuli" is a test for productivity. I would think it would be more along the lines of "generate a bunch of code."
I find that music helps me for certain things. Normally I don't listen to music at work, unless it is noisy or I just feel like it. My headphones generally sit on my desk except when I'm using them for w
I disagree (Score:2, Informative)
I disagree with the findings. In my experience most people wear headphones to drown out the noise generated in an office environment. It doesn't take too many days of listening to your neighbor on the other side of your cube wall talk to his wife about whats for dinner or your other neighbor who loves to hum to his music before you run out and buy a pair of noise cancelling head phones. Maybe If the CEOs would try and do a little work outside of their corner windowed office with the door shut things might c
I had a co-worker (Score:2)
I had a co-worker who always listened to NPR through her headphones at work. I have no idea how she ever got anything done.
Like most people I know, I tend to listen to instrumental music (classical, bluegrass, whatever) when working or studying. Silence would probably be better but unfortunately I've never had a working environment where silence was an option. I'd like to find whoever came up with the concept of an open office plan, lock him inside an elevator, and then blast top 40 music at him 24/7, for
Fatal flaw (Score:5, Interesting)
As others have pointed out, music is probably a far better distraction than random noises that people around you are making with their discussions and what not.
What I do is to put a song on repeat. There are a bunch of songs that I have heard so many times that I don't even notice that they're playing anymore, and that allows me to concentrate on whatever it is I'm trying to figure out.
When I hear people talking or walking around or anything that I cannot control, I'm distracted because I'm trying to figure out what is causing that noise and am taken out of my "figure things out" shell.
no vocals, no problem (Score:2)
I almost strictly listen to electronic music when writing code. Not the tuc-tuc-tuc jumpy-jumpy techno kind, but psychedelic trance, Goa or progressive trance. Anything with singing happens (if it does) when I am writing mails or have to do some non-coding (e.g. configuring) activities.
I do find music helpful with repetitive coding tasks. When I am stuck I prefer dead silence, but when you do routine stuff you did 1000 times it really helps to get the stuff done. That is when I prefer some really progressiv
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, almost forgot: yes, headsets are antisocial, but probably I chose a profession that makes me sit with a bunch of machines because I prefer the machines over the chatter about politics, yesterday's TV show or the actual soccer game. This way I do not have to pretend caring about all this and join the time-wasting conversation.
OK, that is not the case at my current place as we carefully filled the room with people who prefer darkness, headphones and their monitors over the above.
Depends on the music (Score:5, Interesting)
I've found that any music with recognizable words is too much of a distraction. My brain gets stuck keeping along with the song instead of working on the code.
So most of my "coding music" consists of soundtracks - both film (complete Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, plus a few others) and video game (every Final Fantasy, every Zelda, and a bunch more). No words for my brain to get distracted by parsing, and no more accidentally typing in the lyrics to "Flight of Icarus" instead of actual code.
Weirdly, it only happens for words I can understand. Languages I just flat-out don't know, like German or Japanese, are fine. And any Latin mangled badly enough for me to not understand it (see: most modern songs in Latin (I'm looking at you, Uematsu - that is NOT where the emphasis goes on "interius"!)) also flies right by. I've even discovered that incomprehensibly-sung English gets ignored as well, although I simultaneously discovered that I do *not* like death metal.
headphones are useful (Score:3)
A co-worker years ago wore a Walkman. He confided in me that they had no batteries in them. It allowed him to ignore the boss while he worked.
Headphones can help productivity if... (Score:2)
But yeah, "background music", either via speaker or headphone, is otherwise usually about as conducive to productivity as leaving a television on within visual range. I think the reasons that w
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Several years ago I did head to my local audiologist and kick down ~$50 for a set of custom-molded earplugs. They're very effective at noise cancellation, though it is a different approach. It's probably not for everyone, but I got them because I
We have good office speakers (Score:2)
I wear them... (Score:2)
As for creating privacy, nonsense I say. Just try scratching your nuts "in private" or farting and see if the women in the office don't complain to the boss.
The only true test for something creating privacy is if you can drink a beer while sitting in your underwear while doing it.
I'm sorry (Score:2)
I am a musician (Score:4, Interesting)
...so I am not a passive listener. There is no such thing as "background music" for me. I can either listen to music or concentrate on the task at hand. I supposed it could be considered a curse (like perfect pitch, which I do not have, thank gods), but I cannot imagine life any other way.
Just close your door (Score:4, Insightful)
When you need to concentrate, just close your door. Instant privacy and silence, and it's a clear sign to others that you're working on something and shouldn't be bothered.
Oh right, people don't get offices anymore because of the vast performance improvements from the open collaborative workspace where anyone can interrupt you at any time for any inane reason. They even interrupt you inadvertently when they are talking to coworkers
Firing range hearing protection. (Score:3)
Broad conclusions from a narrow study (Score:5, Interesting)
Did anyone actually read the linked article?
Even the article doesn't support the broad conclusion. For a given test, music made performance worse. It's ridiculous to extrapolate that to any kind of real-world situation. WTF? And people here express a belief in science!
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/11767/1/Will-Background-Music-Improve-Your-Concentration.html [healthguidance.org]
That's why I work from the basement: silence is Au (Score:5, Informative)
I am not kidding, I am working from a basement because it's silent, and rarely have music on; read: maybe a few times in 2-3 months(!). It's good to read that I am actually right on this: music distracts. And if it doesn't it's because I am not hearing it; in which case it's just "audio-wallpaper".
FWIW, no I am not living with my mum. I am married, and we have 2 children.
Best to use my own music (Score:3)
I categorize music into two major classes: "work music" and "non-work music". "Work music" is music that is suitable for work. It must not call too much attention to itself; most of my work music is instrumental, and most of it is familiar to me from having listened to it many times.
Some of my music has crazy sound effects or other avant-garde stuff that makes it unsuitable to be used as work music. Some of it is great for waking you up when you are sleepy, but far too distracting to be work music. (You might be different from me; maybe you can concentrate while rocking out to loud, hard music. I can't.)
Some of my favorite work music is "jazz fusion", jazzy music with a strong beat (the name means "fusion of jazz with rock-and-roll").
Yeah, maybe it is theoretically best to be in an acoustically quiet environment with no distractions. But my familiar work music is much less distracting than all the sounds of the people around me. And I'm in a relatively quiet office environment; I'm one of the lucky ones now.
Back when I spent a year as a temp, and I had to share a single office with one, later two, and eventually three other people? Only my music and some Sennheiser HD-280 pro headphones saved my productivity and my sanity. (Sennheiser claims 30 dB of acoustic isolation from the HD-280 pro headphones. That might be high, but they do a great job overall of blocking out background noise.)
steveha
White noise hurts my ears, but rain sounds do not (Score:3)
I use an artificial rain storm I downloaded a few years ago from http://simplynoise.com/ [simplynoise.com] . I see they have a new version.
I use headphones in the office. They have developers mixed in with everyone else, phone reps, managers, everyone but sales staff. So it can get very noisy.
I tried white noise, pink noise and brown noise, (which they also have), but all hurt my ears after a while, when using headphones. I find the artificial rainstorm does not. I put it in a repeating loop and it takes care of suppressing office noise. this is especially effective when combined with noise cancelling headphones.
I find music too distracting, whether rock, classical or something else, like Phillip Glass, Sigur Ros, etc. People do not believe me when they ask what I am bouncing around to in my chair and I say Naqoyqatsi or Edgar Meyer. But the rainstorm does not distract and does allow me to concentrate.
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Playing music your parents hate is also antisocial
While I can't stand my daughter's pop music, my kids haven't yet reached the stage of purposeful antagonism yet.
Also, they know to keep the volume down when I'm in my office.
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Don't teenagers socialize by playing music their parent hate?
Re:I don't let my kids have earbuds. (Score:4, Funny)
even if that means listening to music I can't stand being played from a stereo
Boy, you would have loved me in my Death Metal phase in high school. After a few hours of Napalm Death or Cannibal Corpse, you probably would have bought me a pair of headphones yourself.
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After a few hours of Napalm Death or Cannibal Corpse, you probably would have bought me a pair of headphones yourself.
As opposed to minutes if you where playing Katy Perry or Lady Gaga.
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Kids don't need porn to masturbate. Heck, you'd probably be doing the boy a favor. His imagination will make far prettier girls to him than most websites on the internet will.
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I grew up before most people even had a computer, let alone one in their room, but I know from my own experiences (see my comment below) that disallowing your kids to have a little privacy is probably more damaging psychologically then the fucking earbuds are to their ears.
Re:I don't let my kids have earbuds. (Score:5, Interesting)
Because denying your child the use of headphones is so respectful.
Everyone needs a little privacy from time to time, especially kids. Denying them their privacy, even if said privacy is escaping into a pair of headphones for a little while, seems to me almost abusive. I listened on the headphones because I was considerate of the fact that other people don't want to listen to my music. Take that away from me, and now your comfort level means as much to me as mine obviously does to you, i.e., jack fucking squat.
I grew up an Army brat with a typical 'spare the rod and spoil the child' stepfather that treated me like one of his troops and pulled shit just like the GP (I remember once he denied me the right to a lamp in my room for 3 days after "talking back" because he knew I enjoyed reading, true fucking story). All his bullshit resulted in was years of resentment that it took me into well into my adulthood to rationalize to the point where we're able to actually have a relationship at all, and it damaged not only our relationship but my relationship with my mother as well.
I don't have kids, but believe me, he taught me a lot of ways not to treat my children when I do eventually have them. I suspect GP is doing well on that front, as well.
Re:Two Words: (Score:5, Informative)
No kidding, the author is full of loaded language. Why not just "headphones" instead of "two plastic pieces connected by a wire"? I think he's pretty clearly got something personal against headphones in the first place.
The place where my father worked had a good solution: everyone was in a rotation for music of the week. You brought your CDs and they played on a multi-disk capable boom box (or ghetto blaster) in the corner of the office for that week. No one brought anything too annoying or weird because everyone else could get revenge on their own week.
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That only works if peoples' tastes in music are similar enough. One person's "annoying" or "weird" is another person's "normal", and vice versa. Just about any modern country music is "annoying" to me, yet among a bunch of southerners that kind of music is perfectly normal. Rap is beyond "annoying" to me, but among certain demographics (namely various younger people), that music is also "perfectly normal". What if one of the people on the team is from Iraq and wants to listen to whatever they listen to
Re:Two Words: (Score:5, Funny)
That only works if peoples' tastes in music are similar enough.
QFT. I worked in a warehouse doing order picking one year where the boss and her fan club were all big into country music, and not even good country music like Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings, but the godawful shit that they pass off as country music today.
I spent that year listening to such timeless classics as She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy [youtube.com], (Her Favorite Color is) Chrome [youtube.com], One More Day [youtube.com], and Beer For My Horses [youtube.com].
Unfortunately, because there was lift equipment in use on the warehouse floor, we weren't allowed to use headphones for safety reasons. After a few months of this shit (and it was always the same shit, they had a handful of mix discs they would play and they never, ever updated the selection) those of us that couldn't stand it started singing along as loudly as we could, in as exaggerated a country accent we could, throwing our own little interjections like "Hoo, doggy!" and "Yee-HAWWWWW" (complete with knee slaps) into the mix for good measure...and the boss responded by turning the music up even louder. In retaliation, one guy actually got on the P.A. to sing along with the now higher volume and got a write up for his troubles. No sense of humor at all in that bunch of shit-kicking hicks...
I wasn't very sad to leave that place.
Re:Two Words: (Score:4, Funny)
Fuck me sideways with a rusty spoon that is some painful shit. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the chrome.. song. It's done now, I can never unhear it, fuck.. and I had almost recovered from highlander 2 too. I mean, I still occaasionally wake up sweating with vague notions of experiencing some nameless horror with a background smell of rancid popcorn but that's the best one can hope for - the actual memories of highlander 2 have mostly faded. Now I'm going to need powerful psychotropics or a powerful shamen to get that Chrome song exorcised - thanks.
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Around my office, I feel as though revenge would be encouraged... We had signed up on some silly "DJ" site where 5 people get to pick songs and others would rate them. Eventually the design side joined us and started playing repetitive as hell electronic music. One of the developers loaded up some Mastodon and it all went downhill from there. We ended up just going back to headphones.
Re:Two Words: (Score:5, Funny)
Would you have preferred as a first post, that I introduced you to the marvelous properties exhibited by Clean My PC?
Two Words: (Score:4, Interesting)
"No Headphone"
I do not wear headphone, and in my office and in my home I do not turn on the radio either
When I surf online, I do not stream any music
I carry out my work without having to listen to any "background noise", and I find that I can focus better without hearing anything that's annoying
Re:Two Words: (Score:4, Informative)
I wear headphones with nothing playing, usually. People leave me to my work.
Its the words, not the music (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Pick music you are completely familiar with. If you know a song well, you won't be listening closely to the words or music, they way you do when you first hear a song. The more you have listened to it the better, because you are likely to tune it out consciously.
2) Pick music without lyrics. Even if you hit point #1, every now and then your brain might find a vocal phrase to latch on to. No lyrics, nothing to think about.
I find that movie scores and video game soundtracks work very well. Techno and industrial is also good, because it is very rhythmic. Oh, and ditch those shitty ear buds, and get some good noise cancelling headphones. The music sounds better with a good bass driver, and they keep out distracting outside noise much better. For just $50 you can get some great earphones that will last for years. When I get in the zone with some music to drown out outside noise, I can crank out code for hours.
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I also listen to predictably rhythmic music sans lyrics since it seems to leave my concentration intact compared with lyrical or complex music. The other weird property for me is that it breaks me out of my website-checking compulsion loop.
Re:Two Words: (Score:4, Informative)
That's exactly why I wear headphone sometimes at work, it's because of the background noise from PEOPLE. They distract the shit outta me.
Re:Two Words: (Score:5, Informative)
That dude across the hallway talking loudly to some indian programmer over a bad connection? Quite distracting...
The three people discussing the latest fad? Also quite distracting...
The loud whine of the AC, yet again.. distracting.
The music is there to cover worse distractions.
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If I don't wear headphones, the constant **INTRIGUING** political and scifi conversations of coworkers behind me who never ever seem to get any work done (standing around behind me, yakking for what seems like 5 hours every day), I never get ANY work done!! A lot of the time, I even get sucked in, go over there, and start yakking myself!
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