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Comment by andrewfromx | Hacker News Reader

You really can just put in the headphones and ignore distractions for a few hours. And then, leave. You don’t have to sit there for 8+ hours. Go in in the morning, talk to a few people face to face, sit there with headphones for ~2 hours, and then maybe after lunch, go elsewhere and work from another location you like.

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Maybe that works for you, but headphones do nothing for me for the stress caused by having my back exposed to people walking around.

All things considered you have a pretty amazing life if someone walking behind you constitutes "stress."

It’s an automatic reaction in all humans. It triggers a fight vs flight reflex.

I've worked in open plan for the last 14 years, I've gotten used to it. headphones and zoning out just makes me the only one there...

You realize there are large numbers of people who cannot "go elsewhere and work from another location [they] like".

Sure but that’s all just conditioning. Just do it. And if you get in trouble show the code you wrote. Repeat. Eventually you’ll be at peace with just walking out the door.

It is not just conditioning. Some people physically cannot, or have significant barriers to doing so. I would have to give up my two 29" monitors and work over a shitty RDP connection. At my previous two companies I had to be physically at my desk to actually do my job.

And I’m saying, yes, I know, I understand, I used to say the exact same lines before I switch to a laptop and just started doing it. Your words read like a man dying to get out of the office but blaming someone else for why you can’t. I’m not saying this to be mean, I’m like trying to talk to my former self and convince him, hey, i can do this!

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