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Valentino Gagliardi
Valentino Gagliardi

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Am I weird?

I'm the only one completely unable to code or even write a single sentence with music in my hears? I cannot seem to focus when there is background music, let alone if it's rock or something. I feel weird sometimes! I can write or code stuff only if there's almost total silence.

How about you? Curious to see if there is some "colleague" out there!

Oldest comments (27)

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deciduously profile image
Ben Lovy

The only music I can have playing is jazz, and it's the only time I listen to jazz. Go figure.

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valentinogagliardi profile image
Valentino Gagliardi

That's funny isnt' it?

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Daniel

For me it’s nearly the same and I’ve wondered why I’m hearing music while programming that I wouldn’t hear normally.

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Riccardo Bernardini

At the moment I am listening some middle-east pop music :-) Just before that it was '80s disco.

To me music is like "mental cooling fluid" (that is how I feel it, actually). Without music I get tired fast. And it must be fast and rhythmic music like disco, trance, r'n'r from 50-60, italo disco. Soft stuff like relaxing, jazz or classical does not work.

Do not ask why...

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Valentino Gagliardi

I won't :-D

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Ross Henderson

I have two colleagues that barely listen to music when coding, instead just deals with the background noise.

But I learnt to code in a call centre, which had about 50+ people in the office, so you can imagine how loud it could get. I really struggle without music because of that, which can be a hinderance at times!

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Valentino Gagliardi

I can imagine!

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Sung M. Kim • Edited

I can play with music but only if there is no "lyric" in it.
Once I hear a lyric, I lose the focus completely.

I sometimes zone in better with music (w/ lyrics) and some other times in total silence.

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valentinogagliardi profile image
Valentino Gagliardi

That's almost the same for me!

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Juha-Matti Santala

Have you tried white noise, like Noisli or Coffitivity?

In today's work life it's getting harder and harder to find a place where you can work in total silence unfortunately so good noise-cancelling headphones and white noise can be a solution for some who finds music disturbing.

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Valentino Gagliardi

Interesting! Will take a look for sure!

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Rodrigo Mikin

Sometimes I like it really quiet. Sometimes I like to play EDM and affects my coding speed to go faster. It actually really depends on how you actually deal with focus and what is actually happening in your head. I prefer to listen to music so that no one can bother me of what i am doing as I really hate being interrupted while I am in a middle of something.

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Andrei Gatej

I can’t imagine working without listening to music. My favorite genres are rap and rock.

These days, ironically enough, I’ve been listening to italian music(Francesco Renga, Ligabue - might sound familiar to you!);

I don’t know how this affects my productivity though. It’s been going well this way!

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Valentino Gagliardi

If you like italian music you should listen to Francesco De Gregori as well :-) Ciao dall'Italia!

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Brad

The one thing that music gives you is a beat. If you have a beat, you can get in a rhythm. I find it easier to "stay in the zone" listening to something with a good beat. I used to not listen to music as the music I listened to seemed to just get me distracted.

I've found something like jazz or EDM to provides a beat that helps me have a pace while typing programming.

I love rock/hard rock, but its a lot harder to keep my pace and focus listening to that stuff. I just might be rocking out to hard to focus 🤘 😉

I'm not saying music works for everyone, but I found the more "abstract" music helps me the most :)

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Anastasia

It nice to have total silence, but often it's impossible if you work at the office. It would be great to be able to abstract from any noise.

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Valentino Gagliardi

I know :-(

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Jordan Amos

I have a pet theory that ADHD and some ADD kids, especially untreated, use the music as a minimal distraction.

I need a certain amount of distraction to ignore so that I can remain focused. I'll be looking for stimulation from the street or something silly if I am not actively ignoring something.

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Sen Toren

Huh, that makes a lot of sense for me and my process.