Do You Need Headphones While Working?
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Do You Need Headphones While Working?
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 10161 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 40 comments
Even without anything playing they're useful (Score:5, Insightful)
What better way to tell your cow-orkers "dont bug me right now".
Of course, it won't really filter out the annoying people, they'll just tap your shoulder.
Re:Even without anything playing they're useful (Score:5, Funny)
I was going to be in Deep Hack mode for a while. I wrote "ICMP.code = 1, UNREACHABLE" on a neon pink sticky note and stuck it onto my headphones. An hour later, I was juggling about 20 modules' worth of state when a coworker started tapping me on the shoulder. I tried to ignore him, but he kept it up until I lost track of everything and gave up. I turned to him.
"Ha ha! That's really funny! Did you make that?"
My other coworkers later reported that they'd never heard such a torrent of well-deserved profanity before that day.
Re: Even without anything playing they're useful (Score:2, Interesting)
My supervisor always used to just walk into my cubicle and start talking. The worst was when he came in and started talking to me while I was typing an email and my brain just locked up - I couldn't think straight to finish my email and I couldn't register a word he was saying. I started wearing headphones as a defensive mechanism to prevent brain-lock. Of course, he still used to come in and talk to me while I had my headphones on but at least I couldn't hear him and then he had to repeat himse
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Music vs. Noise-cancel vs. Telephone Headsets (Score:2)
For phone calls, I need either a headset or speakerphone, and when I'm at an office with other people or lab with noisy hardware, or working at home and my wife's around, the speakerphone's impractical. I used to be on the phone for an average of 2-3 hours a day; with my current work it's usually a bit less, but there's still a lot.
And switching between different kinds of headsets is annoying, so I usually don't bother.
Noise-cancelling headsets are nice if I'm not going to talk to people much. The
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They work quite well to filter out the industrial noise, but they still allow you to hear alarms and co-workers talking, so better and safer than regular hearing protection earmuffs or plugs.
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Try the kind of earplugs they sell to musicians, concert-goers, etc. I spent about £15 on some, since I go to a lot of gigs, and they block out the sound evenly. Headphones aren't designed to protect your hearing, so personally I wouldn't trust them.
private work space (Score:2)
I definitely have used headphones to create a private work space for myself in a cubicle/office environment...no music sometimes...
To me, the problem is the whole "Open floor plan" trend in office design
It's fine for people like a police detective or data entry or some PR team, but for people doing complex individual based desk-bound work, the open floor plan is a disaster.
Lowly grad students are given their own Research Carrel even at least. It's windowless but its **private**...human nature demands privac
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Mine just stand around in a group at the edge of my vision until I stop my podcast and look over to them. There is much to be said for offices with doors that close.
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We have a similar rule, and made it official team wide: Headphones mean "do not disturb". If a person is wearing headphones and you need to communicate with them, send an email. There are very few exceptions, such as a person being late for a meeting where their presence is required.
There is a lot of walking around and talking and socializing and work-related discussion that goes on, we aren't a quiet group of developers. But once someone puts the headphones on it gives a clear signal that they are not to
Audio books (Score:5, Interesting)
As an electrician I don't need to talk to anyone for the majority of my day, with a set of cheap-o bluetooth headphones I go through about a book a week.
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I wonder what the comprehension rate of material is under those conditions.
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Its usually pretty good. After listening to a book at work I can recall all the major and minor plot points or short stories in their entirety, 1950's sci-fi short stories are by far the best translated to audiobook format. They are already written in a radio-drama format so hearing them read out loud sounds very natural.
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audiobooksforfree.com has loads, it's a really low bitrate tho, there might be some at the IA or you could even try Gutenberg (I've had one or two from there, they're generally read by humans but there's one or two that're read by Hawking, that sounds really weird!)
Working and Listening are Mutually Exclusive (Score:4, Interesting)
I find myself unable to multitask. Either I am listening to music (mostly classical) and all my mental resources are allocated to hearing what is going on (melodies, harmonies, motives, structure, etc.), or I am involved in work-related activities (coding, coming up with solutions to software engineering problems, reading specs, keeping abreast with subject matter, etc.) that require full concentration. For situations that don't require full concentration, such as testing, the music is distracting.
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Pffft. I work much better with the headphones on, no contest.
Maybe I should try to do something else than DJing, though.
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I think you need to go to east Asia and learn to meditate... Learn to stop that control freak mind and let your mind really relax. It is better for you and you will actually find that you will work better.
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"being able to multitask = work better" may not be a general rule, but if it works for some people, why not? Maybe you are great at single-tasking, maybe you get as much done single-tasking as others get done multi-tasking, good for you if so. Personally, I am most productive when I have two or three things to do. I get on with one of them, the easiest one, while my subconscious untangles the tricky ones, occasionally asking my conscious mind for a bit of help so I stop what I am doing and think for a bit.
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The difference between you and others is that you are not fooling yourself.
AS has been shown many times, multitasking is not efficient.
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I think you need to learn some critical thinking skills.
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Same here. Piano concertos are for days when I really need to work through some big ideas, otherwise it's Chinese Man, Thievery Corp or the like.
I have Pandora/Spotify stations all trained up for either mood. I also have a standing desk, so if I look up at people as they pass they always stop and ask if I'm DJing.
Lesson learned: Don't make eye contact.
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I also often use Ambience [ambianceapp.com] pretty regularly, creating mixes of birds chirping, streams running by, etc. to keep my mind alert. There's no natural light where I work, so any little bit helps.
Re:Working and Listening are Mutually Exclusive (Score:4, Interesting)
If I am just doing routine coding I need music. I don't actively listen to it, it's just there. I couldn't tell you the song that previously played.
If there is problem I am struggling with to solve I need to turn off the music otherwise it is a distraction, as I need all my attention focused on solving the problem.
I will also shut my office door. A shut office door at our work is a massive DO NOT DISTURB, basically the building better be on fire if you dare even knocking on the door; if something is super urgent a phone call is allowed, otherwise email. However the shut door policy shouldn't be abused i.e you better be in a meeting, on an important call, or working on a hard problem, not just doing your routine work.
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It's especially useful for miserable boring projects, where the task is more to pay attention to what you need to do than to figure out how to do it.
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It only says wear headphones nothing about playing anything. Headphones are great just for getting casual interruptions to go away. Someone has to get your attention visually, and wait for you to take hte headphones off, which is more than most people are willing to endure (and if they do it once, they usually won't come back for a second dose).
The trick is to make it all a big production, even if you hear them and know they're waiting. 30 seconds of feigned ignorance, then they get impatient and wave or ta
Take a hint (Score:2)
Home Office . . . (Score:2)
. . . the only noise, is your own.
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Eeeeew
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All the more reason to have music playing,
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onanomatopoeia
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Look up "Sin of Onan" then you will see the wordplay involved :P
Can't wear them. (Score:5, Interesting)
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The same thing happens to me. I think it's a function of detail -- I don't have good speakers, but I have phenomenal headphones. I can't hear the detail on the speakers, so it doesn't draw me in.
This also means I don't experience this with simpler, repetitive music like EDM. Give me something orchestral, though, and I'll catch myself closing my eyes to focus on it and lap up every tiny detail.
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Try a white-noise generator for a while, instead.
Android phone?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mizusoft.relaxandsleep [google.com]
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Where I work it's company policy that you can only use one earbud at a time, which I can't stand for listening to music.
There's an adapter [monoprice.com] for that... mixes stereo down to mono (which means, if you plug a regular stereo earphone in, you get the audio in the left ear).
I just wish there was an equal easy/compact way (i.e. not stacking a stereo-to-mono adapter and a mono-stereo adapter) to mix down and distribute it to both sides of a stereo TRS jack, so I could alternate ears when using asymmetric earbuds -- right now I use that adapter with symmetric earbuds with the right end cut off at the Y, but I'd really like to be able
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Where I work it's company policy that you can only use one earbud at a time
As a software developer, that policy would be a dealbreaker for me.
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Yep, Rusty makes a mean mix. Been listening to SomaFM for a lot of years now.
Multiple answers (Score:2)
I can't stand working with headphones on most of the time.
I still use them when it's better than hearing all the background noise.
Only when I need to count lots of toothpicks (Score:2)
Not headphones, but in-ear monitors (Score:5, Interesting)
I got these [earinc.com] along with a cheap set of Samsung earbuds. Put the mold in your ear, and while it's soft put the earbuds in. After it hardens, drill a hole to the ear canal. I used a dremel with a 1/8 inch bit. Naturally, don't drill while it's in your ear. (sorry, but I know somebody's going to troll on that)
I love them. They are unobtrusive, comfortable, don't fall out, and are inexpensive. Best of all, they sound great.
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everything I've ever tried that is in-ear gets slowly (sometimes quickly) pushed out of my ear-canal... I might try these sometime if I get $20 to burn :D
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I don't need them... (Score:2)
But I've had to insist a few office-mates wear them, in the past.
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The guy who sits behind me listens to earphones, but when he gets up, he leaves them on the desk, so I get that you-can-barely hear it noise coming from behind me. Often it takes me a while to work out where it's coming from and I wonder what I'm hearing.
Actually, while I was typing that, he walked off, and I guess he accidentally unplugged them as he was getting up or something, as it went up to full volume. Less making me think I'm crazy, but definitely more distracting.
I work at home (Score:2)
Headphones? Give me a 10" sub-woofer instead.
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Headphones? Give me a 10" sub-woofer instead.
<Crocodile Dundee>Subwoofer? You call that a subwoofer? (Pulls out Marshall stack with 30 inch woofers)<Dundee>
Ten inches isn't a subwoofer, kid. Ten inches is pretty lame for a woofer. Hell, my twelve inch 3 way JBLs only go down to 30 Hz (the old 777s that I used to have that were stolen from me in a burglary had fifteen inch woofers and went down to zero Hertz, but were only flat down to 20 Hz).
If you want good sound (especially bass) don't buy you
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Jees, you kids...
kids? I still have a box of Hollerinth cards somewhere.
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When I listen to the 1812 Overture, I want the cannons to rattle the windows. When I play rock music I want the neighbors to think there's a live band in my living room!
Not at all (Score:2)
I only go to work to talk to the people there.
Headphones (Score:2)
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In an office (with actual doors), perhaps, but an open floor plan solution is to save money, not to increase collaboration. All research articles I have noticed over the years conclude that productivity plummets in an open floor plan solution. If there is a job description it is suited for, I have yet to see it mentioned. The upsides of collaboration and camaraderie is obliterated by noise levels and disruptions.
Personally, I stay home and keep email closed and my phone off if I have something I actually ne
eject button on my officemate's chair (Score:2)
I actually like my officemate and his taste in music. But an eject button on your chair would be kinda cool.
"Tastes like chicken" (Score:2)
Someone who had absoloutely no idea that programmers need quiet and no interuptions had the development team in one aisle of cubes with the next aisle over populated by sales and marketing. It REALLY helped to have headphones. On the other hand, the sales wonks did a lot of international travel including to some third world countries where they were exposed to some interesting native cuisine. It gave me a whole new appreciation of hearing someone say, "Tastes like chicken."
Cheers,
Dave
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...you killed and ate the marketdroids?!
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...you killed and ate the marketdroids?!
Nah. Like the A.C. response, "Yuck!" They're full of bull shit and hot air. Definitely not tasty.
On the other hand, vegetarians are quite tasty (with a little bar-b-que sauce or other appropriate toppings).
Cheers,
Dave
Not a good idea.... (Score:3)
Sometimes (Score:2)
I am planning to check if Amaranthe (a cross between dance or something like that and metal) is suitable to all. If that works I would expand that with the correct tracks from Delain, Lacuna Coil and perhaps some works by R
May I recall... (Score:2)
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Why should I? (Score:2)
Why would I need headphones? I've got my own office now! ^_^
That said, I do listen to music more or less constantly, and most of the time I can't function nearly as well without it. There are certain times, though, when I'm trying to get my brain through some particularly convoluted chain of logic that I'll need to code, that the music, for whatever reason, suddenly becomes a distraction.
Dan Aris
Unobtrusive privacy request (Score:3)
I'm all for the headphones at work.
When I see someone wearing them, I assume that they are heads down solving a problem and because of the intensity of the problem they need privacy. The headphones is a unobtrusive way to make that point.
When companies have the Future at Work scenario or cubicles with no private offices sometimes there is just way too much distracting noise. Many people do work well in that environment, but for others the headsets allow one to dampen the white noise, or change it to a white noise that is more suitable fhttp://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl#or one's purpose. And honestly, if it increase productivity in the workplace, then I would encourage it for more people.
Considering my job is different (Score:2)
Missing option (Score:2)
On a vaguely related note I wonder if conventional earplugs (not earphones) might damage hearing from loud internal noises like coughs because the internally generated sound energy may not escape the ear as easily.
l'Enfer, c'est les Autres! (Score:2)
I only use them in certain circumstances: (Score:2)
i.e. when I want to listen to something and not annoy everyone around me.
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speaking of which, the other day someone was watching a youtube video on their phone in a restroom stall... without headphones. Is that a thing now? I hope not.
Bluetooth Ear Protectors (Score:2)
None of the above (Score:2)
Headphones absolutely required (Score:2)
I type medical transcription for a living. Without headphones I'm pretty much fucked because I'm not only violating HIPAA, but I also can't hear the subtle nuances in some folks' voices, especially when dealing with English as a second language speakers. I just had a laptop go dead on me, leaving me not willing to spend more to repair it, so while I waited for a cheap replacement I worked on an older laptop that didn't have bluetooth, so I couldn't use my headset with it. I dealt without the headset for a b
Depends on the office noise level... (Score:2)
If stretching out your arms will hit two cow-orkers, several of them are talking on the phone, or to each other... and if you've got low-walled or no cubicles (forget about real walls), then my productivity is about as high as it would be if you were slapping me in the face every few seconds, without some kind of masking sounds pumped-in to mask the distractions. Muzak-style is fine, but headphones are okay if your office doesn't have the foresight to install that.
Headphones with no audio playing is okay,
Do hearing aids count? (Score:2)
To hell with headphones (Score:2)
Work from home and crank it up!
No headphones in Chemistry labs (Score:3)
Sony MDR-V6... (Score:2)
...with the beyerdynamic earpads. Does an exceptional job and creating a cone of silence. My office is a half-height cube farm and it feels like a share a larger office-space with kindergarteners. The slightest bit of external stimulus creates a positive feeback loop of jack-assery, and in the worst cases there are two different threads of jack-assery to my right and left.
As a concrete example, the other day was a convo-argument about a guy selling monkeys out of a van which involved at least 8 of my co-wor
Neurophysiology problem (Score:2)
Foreigners (Score:3, Interesting)
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That was about needing headphones, not a gas mask.
Re:Klipsch Rugged earphones FTW (Score:5, Funny)
Did you at least get your customer a new cup of coffee?
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Still doesn't beat the Peltor Optime III.
That's my weapon of choice if I need to go undisturbed by anything short of a low pass fighter jet flyover.
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Your MP3's must suck, mine are all LAME encoded at 200+kbps and so are basically indistinguishable from the source material (certain tracks might distort cymbals a tiny bit but I'm not a drummer so I don't normally notice). The only cheap headphones I've heard that are worth a damn are the Koss KSC-75 which I use for hiking, at $20 MSRP they're cheap but certainly not $5 earbud cheap.
Re:Klipsch Rugged earphones FTW (Score:5, Funny)
Your MP3's must suck, mine are all LAME
For some reason, this doesn't seem to be a very coherent argument....
Take a quote out of context? Why I would never!
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My personal music is FLAC (lossless) or high quality MP3, and Pandora One is 192kbps MP3, so high quality headphones definitely help in my case. Also, earbuds have next to no isolation.
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Yes, with FLAC you need good output transducers.
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"You don't need good headphones with MP3s. Period."
false, depends on the Kbps.
And some headsets boost certain frequencies.
"And you won't hurt ANY headphones by getting them wet,"
ah, I see, you are from the 'B' ark.
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some headsets boost certain frequencies.
I don't want any frequencies boosted or attenuated, I want a flat frequency response. I don't want it to "sound good" I want it to faithfully reproduce the original performance. I want it to sound like the musicians are in the room with me, and you won't get that with MP3s.
ah, I see, you are from the 'B' ark.
Unless your headphones are wireless, water won't hurt them, they'll dry. Of course if there's a battery and electronics getting them wet isn't a good thing.
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You know, there may be issues with the analog bits of your *netbook* not following every hiss and pop, but rather adding some hiss of its own...
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As an aircraft pilot and controller sometimes it's compulsory (can't understand what they mean when they say it's distracting while driving or working it depends on what u are listening to). For those who code software for anticollision devices why do they decided to use squared wheel? Guess why a controller wont let u climb or descend when on a collision allert are u shure shifting planes as u are in proximity is the best solution 4 your and the other pilots plane they should put some of u in a plane with your devices to test them sometimes, have u been at the same high school with Windows 8 interface programmer?
...and here we are worrying about the TSA.
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I find this comment more insightful than the original post. Did you ever find out what the square wheel was? I'm just browsing /. to occupy some spare cycles in my brain, so I don't want to dedicate the focus I would need in order to find out. I got as far as "proximity is the best solution 4 your and the other pilots plane" before realizing I was in over my head.
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re: Square wheel
I think GP's interpretation, that it was an analogy meaning 'obviously bad design', is probably correct
I could do this all day I swear...somehow my post was downmodded? i didn't say anything negative about the guy!
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Or, "I don't work, you insensitive clod!"