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Comment by ornornor | Hacker News Reader

> When I was required in the office, I would just wear headphones to avoid distractions

Sometimes I just want silence. Not music, not $color noise. I also get itchy ears after wearing headphones for hours on end, and noise canceling headphones give me a headache… or, you know, I could work wherever I prefer, with little to no commute, and an office arranged how I like it.

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I see it as a fairness and reasonableness issue. It’s unfair and unreasonable that the ones polluting the space with noise are the ones that get to enjoy the freedom to use the space without restrictions, while the victims of the noise are the ones that suffer the restriction of the full use of the same space. The same with smoking, which fortunately has been recognised to some extent in recent years.

Yup, this too. Half the time I had headphones on, I didn't even have them playing anything. I just had ANC turned on to muffle the background noise (and deter people who didn't actually needy assistance with anything). But I definitely had ear stink/itch at the end of most days.

Ear stink... I never knew my ears smelled so bad before I started using airpod pros!

Started getting chronic ear infections after using headphones for long hours.

In my anecdotal experience, it’s important to take of headphones every now and then to prevent moisture from accumulating in the ear canal. That moisture is unnatural and id probably very nice for various germs.

The worst place I worked I needed industrial earplugs, then chuck white noise on top of that to get almost distraction free. The way to get the desired peace was to leave

I used to do that but then every 15 minutes some coworker would tap me on the shoulder to ask some inane question, and I would spend 5 minutes taking things out of my ears before I could hear them. Fun (not).

Cheaper noise cancelling headphones would make me nauseous, however I got the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones with 8 external mics to sample the surrounding noise and it was a game changer, super high quality, no more nausea.

I tried the Bose something something and it gave me pressure headaches and a feeling of having a clogged nose.

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