On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 11:51:04AM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d wrote: > On 6/4/2014 11:36 AM, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d wrote: > >On Wed, Jun 04, 2014 at 09:30:32AM -0700, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d > >wrote: > >>On 6/3/2014 11:38 PM, Jacob Carlborg wrote: > >>>I can't have music on at work > >> > >>I understand that. But can you have it on at a barely perceptible > >>volume at your desk? That's usually enough for me. > > > >I find that music distracts my ability to think clearly, especially > >when coding or solving a complex algorithmic / mathematical problem. > > True for me, too. Which is why I prefer ambient music at low volume > when coding, and sometimes even then I'll turn it off when faced with > a difficult problem.
It's strange, I find that even ambient music distracts me, yet the loud noise of an occasional passing train doesn't. Similarly, even whispers will distract me, but birds chirping, trees rustling, etc., don't. It's something about intelligible sounds that engage my brain somehow, that non-intelligible sounds don't have. So far, I haven't found anybody else who experiences the same thing. Paradoxically, when I'm trying to focus while there are lots of other distractions around me (or psychological anxieties), I find music via headphones helpful. Maybe because the isolation removes more distractions than it adds, I don't know. T -- Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals could believe them. -- George Orwell