Noise and Productivity

a x thread from Ethan Mollick that I really like

"Noise is a secret destroyer of productivity.

It is secret because it impacts cognition, not effort, so we don’t notice, but a 10db noise increase (from a dishwasher to a vacuum) lowers productivity by 5%. Noise is also greater in poorer neighborhoods.. Noise really hurts detailed work. With a little noise software engineers find fewer bugs, productivity drops, & many tasks are disrupted.

But moderate noise may help creativity by disrupting your thinking! It makes it harder to think, but that may actually prompt new ideas.

A lot of people are asking about music. The results there are not 100% clear, but recent studies have found a negative impact on complex and creative tasks.

No difference if the 🎶 was instrumental, foreign language, or a particular genre. Silence or low-level noise was best."

https://joshuatdean.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NoiseCognitiveFunctionandWorkerProductivity.pdf