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Comment by colmvp | Hacker News Reader

> From an average undergrad's perspective, the ideal "library" is probably something more like a WeWork.

Ha! Funnily enough I left WeWork because of their incessant need to blast music ALL... THE... TIME. During the times when I needed to really hunker down and grok hard material that required hours of intense focus, I would end up going to the nearby library.

That said, I agree with the sentiment of your comment. The local library is packed with students throughout the day because of the availability of desks/seated areas.

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Do you mean you were working for the company WeWork, or you were working in one of their for rent spaces?

Either way, that sucks. I need absolute quiet or white noise to concentrate. That would be the absolute worst work environment (Well, okay, maybe not the worst. Working as a slave on a roman war galley that was on fire and I was chained to the bench would be worse, but it would be a close second).

I was co-working / part-time studying in the co-working area.

I can deal with background chitchat since I can tune that out but hearing music I can't stand to listen to is really hard to ignore, especially when they jack up the volume! I don't know why the insist on having music always playing, people have left the co-working space because of it. At times it felt more like a frat party than a serious place for people to get work done.

I’m pretty much the same way. Ambient people sounds—unless really loud/intrusive—are fine. And I sometimes even probably prefer to silence/isolation. But lose the music unless maybe it’s maybe quiet background instrumentals. I tend not to listen to music when working even when I’m in total control of the playlist and volume.

> I’m pretty much the same way. Ambient people sounds—unless really loud/intrusive—are fine. And I sometimes even probably prefer to silence/isolation.

Interestingly that relates to one of the few acoustic design points I remember from an architecture paper I failed decades ago.

The point was about Libraries, and how you shouldn't design their acoustics to be as quiet as possible. When something is really quiet, small noises like someone getting up can be very disturbing. While if you design them to have an audible but muffled background murmour where details/sources can't be picked out subconsciously, people will be disturbed less when sounds do happen.

This is also why I abandoned my quest for 100% silent computers in favor of going for a still very quiet but pleasant timbre.

I can't understand what genius decided that all workspaces have to feel like a shitty club. Who plays music in a place literally called WeWork?

WeWork pivoted from startup idea WeChillAtWork.

I know...I know.

"idea"

Some idea really should be described as "brainfart".

Isn't the point of WeWork exactly that chatter? It allows for a space where people from different worlds can work in the same space giving a great opportunity for connections. This is all from second-hand hearsay, never actually worked in one.

Don’t get me wrong I’m okay with hearing background chatter for as you said its part of the reason why one joins a coworking space: socializing. I’m was mostly just complaining about the music and loud talking on phones (when they have phone booths)

My coworking space (not WeWork) has also been turning the music up lately. I'm finding that it causes the background chatter to become intolerable, too, since people naturally respond to loud music by talking even louder.

I think that WeWork has really set a bad precedent here. It was the first coworking space I toured that seemed to be pushing itself as more of a social space than a place to hunker down and get some work done. Since then, though, pretty much everyone seems to be headed in that direction.

I bet IWG is still music-free.

Did work at one for a few years, a better name would be WeTalkAboutWork.

Strangely enough I have a bunch of co-workers who swear they can't get things done without music, noises, or chitchat in the background. One in particular is a reformed trader who uses tracks of noisy trading floors as a focus tool.

I on the other hand need noise-canceling headphones and a confined private workspace to feel really productive. To each their own I suppose!

> I need absolute quiet or white noise to concentrate.

This is a common complaint today, but maybe I’m weird, I just don’t need it. I can work with a jackhammer outside the window, or an office mate picking their toenails five feet away. When I was a kid, my Dad and I played “the artillery game”, where I would shout answers to simple math problems with music or the radio blasting. Sure I don’t like either of those things, but I can still get my stuff done. Demanding absolute stillness and silence is a bit complainy.

We rent an office and the noise is fine unless you have noisy neighbors.

I was strictly commenting on the co-working space. If you rent a dedicated office, there's enough sound proofing where indeed noise shouldn't be a problem.

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