Comment by jimmy76615
1 year ago
I heard all those stories about Von Neumann working like that. According to a biography, his wife once designated a room as his office and he became very angry about that since it was too quiet for him to work there.
Personally I need almost complete silence in order to get anything done, his abilities in this regard always fascinated me.
It's just a different kind of environmental requirement.
It's useful for some people to have recognisable sounds going on while they work, so they have something to latch their focus if they lose it for a second. Whether that be music, or every seinfeld episode on a shuffled loop on the TV.
I have found it useful in the past to listen through every song I have on shuffle while I read, which was nice when I took a few-seconds break every couple of pages and came across a song I wouldn't have picked out otherwise. Alt-tabbing out of a podcast or something completely wrecks my focus on both for some reason though.
I actually prefer to work in a cafe setting, where there is a good amount of non-directed background noise; no one talking to me, but just to each other.
If it's dead quiet, I become hyper-alert to noises, to the point I can't concentrate on working.