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> Ironic, in that what he was trying to communicate was some concepts regarding recognizing the moral reality of those around him, when, in fact, he was one of those clueless types who likely hadn't considered the possibility that his whacking-away at his keyboard was really annoying others.

I think that was his point.

No, I suspect that he likely doesn't realize that he is "that guy." I'm almost certain that he believes he is one of the elite, civilized folks who recognizes the "moral reality" of those around him, and that this is just an exceptional situation, which is not a typical example of his behavior.

In reality, he's probably a jerk that ignores others.

If you read his comics [1], you'll see that he's quite self-aware of his own failings and realizes that he is often a jerk himself (sometimes unknowingly). I also got the sense from just this article that he was quite aware of the fact that he was being the asshole.

[1] http://www.thepaincomics.com/

The point may be that we are all that "guy" (or girl) at some point. How often to we all ignore someone else assuming the other person is the jerk?

This 'condition' is often exacerbated when you realize thinking is less "work" for you than it is the average person.

No, he explicitly describes the situation as finding himself on the "wrong" side of one of these conflicts. He understands that he was the bad guy that time.

It would be even more ironic if he was working on this article.

On a positive note, it does a good job of showing how our perception of quiet can be different. I love going out into the nearby woods where you can't hear noise from the cars and trucks that make up so much of our town's noise. It's amazing how a plane going overhead seems so loud after being in the quiet for a few hours.

It's also pretty amazing how your ears adapt and if you choose to spend the night in the forest, you hear every small animal that scurries about.

> When I'm near those people in a public space, I always wonder if they are having some kind of mental-breakdown, or whether they are passive-aggressively trying to get people to move away from them.

Whenever I come across someone typing loudly in public, I am reminded of this scene from Up in the Air:

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ7EUCBxc9s

I suspect some people can't type quietly because they don't know how. (The secret is to relax the fingers and hands by paying attention to the sensations coming from the fingertips.)

I totally support the quiet coaches. However, they do come loaded with the risk of confrontation between the quiet and the noisy, which is far more disturbing than mere hubbub.