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Ask HN: Do you listen to music/watch videos while working?

3 points by timetosleep ↗ HN
I always tend to listen to lot of music/watch videos while working, wondering if it's a common thing! Most of my colleagues and co-workers usually frown upon that. Wondering if anyone doing something had any issues with that?

Thanks for your time and advice!

8 comments

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themodelplumber
Yes, I do this, but I'm not sure if it is helpful to know since I work from a home office by myself. I sometimes have 4-5 movies or videos playing, 2 music sources, maybe a ham radio or two, all at once. But the movies are usually all silent except for one, and the music and radio volume is very low until I hear something I am interested in. I've been doing this on and off since about 2006.

Most people I talk to about it have the idea that it must be very difficult to focus, but I don't find it difficult to focus at all, and usually it makes work more pleasant, making productivity more sustainable. Sometimes it also directly helps in my work...

One rule that works best for me is that most of what's on screen has to be stuff I've seen before, or am only a little bit interested in. What about you?

timetosleep
Oh okay, yeah I think most of the time, it's things I've seen/heard before. I guess I tend to listen to same songs again, but yes, listening to new tends to make it a bit difficult to focus.

But yes, I think keeping the volume low is something that I might experiment with, it seems like a good idea.

asicsp
Music is almost always on for me, whether I'm working or not. After so many years, it has faded into background though, unless I'm listening to something new or actively listen when I'm not working.
cercatrova
No, I need absolute silence if I want to focus on code.
varun1505
I usually have lo-fi or classical instrumental music playing on my headphones. This helps me focus. Anything with words/lyrics makes it difficult to focus on the work i'm doing.
lakotasapa
You can't according to science. We are simply not capable of multitasking. There is a great podcast on Hidden Brain: Life Interrupted.

However what does seem to work is no lyric music with a rhythm that's close to your own heart rate.

I listen to a genre of music someone hacked together thats seem to making gains: epic music. Popular artists I like are Two Steps from Hell and Audio Machine.

I code but it seems science agrees if you find non intrusive music that you don't need to interpret but simply "groove" subconsciously is your best bet.

Another genre I like; Baroque, chamber music ie Bach Handel

bfostbfostbfost
I highly recommend Acid Pauli sets on YouTube. Great 1-3 hour sets of instrumental music. House/world music whatever you want to call it, I find it great for productive tech design/programming/review/debugging/testing
timetosleep
Wow, he's pretty good, thanks a lot of recommendation.