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Ask HN: How to fake a quiet work environment to oneself?

1 points by abbasmehdi ↗ HN
I work around people who talk to one another at length. I can’t focus when someone is talking right next to me. Putting on headphones distracts me too because I start paying attention to the music/lyrics etc so that isn’t an option. I like deep focus, and can focus deeply for length and often, however I need it to be quiet for me to do so.

Apart from sticking buds in my ears (and seeming uninterested or weird), what can I do or listen to? I have heard that when people go boar hunting, they use tractors whose constant engine noise is phased out by the animal, could I wild-boar myself?

4 comments

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bartonfink
www.simplynoise.com has been a lifesaver for me in similar situations.
atmz
In-ear earbuds are basically earplugs, without the social stigma; of course, you may feel like a bit of a tool for wearing headphones to avoid the shame of earplugs.

Classical or instrumental music might be also worth a try if you haven't tried it already; post-rock works well for me.

As for phasing it out, unfortunately conversation is much harder to tune out than thing like engine noise. Our brains are designed to pay attention to talking, and the intensity and tone are constantly changing.

anigbrowl
I know what you mean. It's hard to work or study around chatty people or where one can hear a radio or TV going. Having abnormally good hearing doesn't help much either.

Recordings of natural acoustic environments (rainfall, seashore) work for some people. I find classical music with slow tempos does the job for me; I sometimes break off to listen, but shortish micro-breaks are a good thing. The good thing about classical music is that there are a lot of long-form pieces, like symphonies that last an hour or opera that lasts 2 or more. Alternatively, you could go looking through the ambient electronic music genre, which tends towards ethereal and spacey sounds rather than being built around hooks, choruses, and musical climaxes. Brian Eno is a good artist to start with.

bdunbar
I use a noise generator.

Noisy - http://code.google.com/p/noisy/

Turn it on and - for me - it sounds incredibly distracting. A few minutes later I don't notice it all and the background distractions fade away.

I've used it at work, I've used it at home. Recommended.