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Does anyone else feels like human distractions are worse than other distractions? I mean that if I read an article while something is compiling, I can switch back immediately when the compilation is done, while talking so someone provoke a way bigger context switch.

I feel like it's the origin of the context switch that changes a bit the things.

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For me the single most distracting thing from deep work is people talking in an open office especially loudly like a conference call on speaker.

HN and whatnot can be contained. Noise-cancelling headphones, turned way up, with some sort of non-lyrical music playing only does so much. Sometimes I move away to quieter parts of the office in spaces like call booths to do deep work.

To me it feels more complicated: sometimes I can tune out discussions and sometimes I can't.

Discussions that are peripherally related to something you’re working on can be dramatically worse than something random. Hence people who can work in coffee shops but not open-plan offices.

Very similar to the issue I suffer from. If I overhear co-workers discussing a problem within my domain, my brain just goes right on ahead without me and starts chipping away at it. After a few minutes I might find myself staring blankly at a screen full of code while my brain is somewhere else entirely.

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