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Comment by CaptSpify | Hacker News Reader

Just like we need to adapt to poor eyesight instead of relying on these "glasses" everyone keeps raving about. /s

I find it hard to take your statement seriously

Those two things are completely non relatable.

If your eyesight is bad, there are things YOU can do for YOURSELF to fix that problem, without asking anyone to change what THEY are doing.

The "quiet office" is something that only some people prefer. Many of us (I'm one of them) prefer noise - music playing, background noise, etc ... I find it hard to concentrate in silence, and I know more people like me.

To ask others to be silent to ask them to change how they comfortably work to suit you. Let everyone work how they work best.

> I find it hard to concentrate in silence

Great! Put on some headphones, then?

You can! They have great noise canceling headphones these days, so go ahead and put those on and let everyone else do their thing?

I don't understand how that will create silence, not just "different noise".

Ear plugs then? (Bose noise reducing headphones actually do a good job at drowning out office noise, even with no other audio playing)

The point is - its just as easy to block noise, so take the responsibility on your side rather than asking others to change for you.

So everyone should just adhere to how you want the world to be? yeah, that makes sense.

I'm not asking anyone to change what they are doing. I'm asking them to stfu and do their job. They are the ones interrupting me, and getting into my business. Your the one asking people to change themselves to conform to your preferences.

Actually, no. You're asking them to behave in the way you prefer. You see, humans aren't naturally driven to be quiet - we're a social animal. We have inbuilt need to communicate, and we're not built to sit in little boxes and stare at a screen in quiet all day. You're asking others to do that though, rather than embrace the natural way our minds prefer to work for many of us. You can use ear plugs, listen to white noise, use good noise canceling headsets, etc. You aren't at their mercy, no more than they are at yours. Your desire for quiet shouldn't overcome their desire for socializing/noise. Everyone should handle themselves, and not ask of others to concede to their wishes.

You are incorrect. We are social, just not all the time. Just because we like talking sometimes != we like being distracted all the time.

Study after study has shown that humans work better with less distractions, especially with office-type jobs (focus/thinking oriented). You may like it, and thats fine. Your also rounding back to my first point. It may be "natural" for us to talk, but that doesn't make it better. Glasses aren't "natural", but they sure help me out.

Additionally: noise-canceling headphones have been shown to cause long-term issues, and not everyone can use them.

> You aren't at their mercy, no more than they are at yours.

Simply untrue. I'm not injecting my quiet onto them. They are injecting their noise onto me. If I punched someone in the face everyday, would you say they are being rude by trying to get me to stop? They are, after all, hampering the "natural" urge for human violence.

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