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Yesterday my wife asked me how can I work with music playing, doesn't that distract me? My response was my work boils down to figuring out what to make, then making it. The figuring out part is hard, and requires silent concentration. The making part is usually straightforward and music helps me crank along.

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I find that playing music occupies the part of my brain that is easily distracted. This allows the productive part of my brain to work without distractions.

Without music, the easily distracted part of my brain starts looking for distractions, which drags the productive part of my brain along with it.

Music gives me momentum and puts me in the moment. In my most productive streaks I listen to music. Then silence is good when evaluating what I’ve done, cleaning up here and there and some refactoring. It’s come kind of call to arms if I needed to make an analogy even though Im not a fan of warfare

I like your observation. I've recently said similar things like "writing code is 99% figuring out what the hell this thing should do, and 1% is actually making it do that thing".

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