
The Quiet Ones - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/the-quiet-ones.html?pagewanted=all
======
pg
My life has been a search for quiet for as long as I can remember.

I think the fundamental problem with noisy people is not that they're
inconsiderate, but that they don't have any train of thought to interrupt, and
they thus don't realize the havoc they're wreaking.

When I was living in Providence, working on _On Lisp_ , I told my loud but
well-meaning neighbors that I was writing a hard computer book, and that made
them be quiet. Ordinary people can understand that you need quiet if you're
working on some specific, hard task, like doing math homework. What they don't
grasp is that someone would want their mind to work that way all the time, as
a matter of course.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I keep late hours in part because, once everyone else goes to bed -- not just
housemates but my entire town -- everything becomes still and quiet, and in
that stillness I'm finally able to think more deeply, more clearly, about
anything.

You've probably already had your fill of argument for the day, but I think
that assuming that noisy people don't have a train of thought to interrupt is
a little bit uncharitable. (I'm assuming the best interpretation of what you
said, which is that they don't have a train of thought while they're being
noisy.) I've met enough people who can think and consider things while
maintaining a non-stop chatter that now I think it's just another of those
quirks of personality: I require solitude to think about things, they do not.

~~~
furyofantares
This reminds me of an anecdote from Feynman about what sorts of mental things
he could and could not do while counting seconds, and how it was different for
different people. His counting was internally verbal and he could do anything
that didn't require him to speak or anything else that was internally verbal.

On the other hand, a mathematician he knew was able to do lots of mental
things while counting that Feynman couldn't, and wasn't able to do other
mental things while counting that Feynman could, because the other guy counted
visually.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y#t=101s)

~~~
bonobo
Some nights, when I lay on my bed trying to sleep but my mind is still racing,
I try to calm down by counting or something that requires concentration in
order to forget everything else. I noticed how I cannot count without having
another train of thought talking or replaying a song I was listening to the
same day. It's like having two threads running in parallel.

Trying to count visually is almost impossible, I lose track before reaching
twenty. As a friend of mine put this, “I can't count sheep to sleep because
they are always cheating.”

~~~
philsnow
Have you tried thinking about the process of breathing ?

Ask yourself, "how do I know I am breathing?": there is some physical
sensation that tells you that you're breathing, whether it's a whistling noise
in your nose, the feeling of air rushing past the tip of your nose or the back
of your throat, the feeling of wanting to return to the neutral position that
your ribs give you during a deep breath.

For a lot of people, just one of these sensations is the most dominant one. If
you can pick one, just lie quietly and concentrate on it and notice it every
time you take a breath.

This process is more about noticing sensation than doing any kind of
cognition, so I find it very useful when trying to take a mid-day nap (I
haven't had trouble sleeping at the end of the day since I had children, funny
that).

------
cletus
I sympathize with whoever criticized the guy for loud typing. Seriously, it's
distracting/disruptive. I learnt to type on (manual) typewriter too but
laptops and keys don't need to be stabbed with the force of a thousand suns to
register the press.

It can be just as loud as people talking and (IMHO) can be harder to tune out.
After all, we're used to hearing people talk all the time.

Oh and while I'm in the mood for ranting, people who eat with their mouths
open--particularly when it's something crunchy--or who slurp in any way are
going to be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I don't catch long distance trains in the US at all. I sometimes take the
subway but more often than not you're just standing for 10-15 minutes. In
Germany, I don't recall having a lot of problems with noise (although, on one
train back from Oberhausen, the smoke was so thick you couldn't see one window
from the other in a very Cheech and Chong moment). England varied but was
generally fine.

What I'm not looking forward to is when cellphones become usable on planes
because you know someone is going to sit there and talk loudly for the entire
flight.

One tip though: my Bose noise cancelling headphones are worth their weight in
gold.

~~~
jseliger
>I sympathize with whoever criticized the guy for loud typing.

I actually don't mind typing: to me, it sounds like ideas. It's also regular
enough to become part of the background, whereas something like music isn't,
because it's too variable.

>my Bose noise cancelling headphones are worth their weight in gold.

I'm going to be that obnoxious guy: Amazon lists Bose QC 15s (the model I
have) as 7.4 ounces. The spot-price for gold right now is about $1,700 per
ounce. Are they really worth $12,580?

~~~
derekp7
>Are they really worth $12,580?

I hate to be the other obnoxious guy that responds to the self proclaimed
obnoxious guy, but I see the quite a bit lately, even paraded in XKCD. Is
there a significant group of people that absolutely abhors all rhetorical
figures of speech? Or is it only specific ones, such as metaphors and
hyperbole, with simile being mostly OK? Just curious.

~~~
jseliger
The deeper I get into writing, and what it means to write well, the harder it
is. Reading Martin Amis's _The War Against Cliche_ was a particularly
pernicious moment for me. So was Lakoff and Johnson's _Metaphors We Live By_.

I think the question is this: does a rhetorical figure of speech help the
reader or writer see the things being compared or figurized in a new way? If
the answer is no, then perhaps we should look at those rhetorical things as
literal, in order to remind ourselves of the power of rhetoric.

I favor metaphors and hyperbole like politicians favor hand-shaking and baby-
kissing. But it to be done well.

~~~
philwelch
Orwell, "Politics and the English Language", 1946:

"By using stale metaphors, similes, and idioms, you save much mental effort,
at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for
yourself. This is the significance of mixed metaphors. The sole aim of a
metaphor is to call up a visual image. When these images clash -- as in _The
Fascist octopus has sung its swan song, the jackboot is thrown into the
melting pot_ \-- it can be taken as certain that the writer is not seeing a
mental image of the objects he is naming; in other words he is not really
thinking. "

"Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to
seeing in print."

~~~
jseliger
Thanks! I assign "Politics and the English Language" to my students every
semester.

------
bpatrianakos
Oh, the quiet car. I ride the quiet car every weekday to and from work into
and out of Chicago (except ours is Metra, not Amtrak). His description of it
is completely accurate. The people on the quiet car tend to be thinkers,
readers, writers, and I dare say just a bit more intelligent than the average
rider.

I've had the same experience before. For some reason people think the signs
and the announcements don't apply to them and it just boggles my mind how much
self awareness they lack! There's been a guy I've seen on the quiet car twice
last week who for some reason had his iPhone at full volume and texted for the
entire hour I was on the train. The problem wasn't the texting but that the
iPhones clickers clackety keyboard sounds were on. Is that really necessary?
And on the quiet car no less? A woman did the same thing a few weeks back. Of
course no one said a word but we were all very annoyed. And then you get the
oblivious guy who doesn't read signs or listen to the 3 announcements who
talks on his cell the whole ride. And don't get me started on the teenagers
who seem to be visiting the city for the first time and for some reason need
to scream at each other despite being centimeters from each others face in a
car full of completely silent people. The signs are obvious. The announcement
are loud, clear, and numerous. So what the fuck, man?!

That's life now. It seems we have a whole generation of people who are just
completely lacking self-awareness and have a serious problem with entitlement.
But it's not young people this is specific to. I'm only 26 and I'm good on the
quiet car (though I have had my moments I'll admit). There are people of all
ages,miracles, and genders who behave this way and though I think humans are
like this by nature anyway I also think the Internet and cell phones have made
it worse. It seems like a learned behavior.

I just blamed Internet and cell phones for a portion of the world's ills. I'm
going to go think about how old that makes me sound now...

~~~
nlh
While we're on this subject, a related rant/question:

Why are so many people so totally oblivious to so many announcements, signs,
and otherwise?

You've all seen it: Boarding a plane, for example. "Ladies, and Gentlemen,
we're boarding rows 1 - 5 now. Thanks." And as sure as Spring, there will
_always_ be someone from row 324 who gets in line. The staff are far more
polite than I'd be: "Sir, we're boarding rows 1 - 5. You're in row 324. I
literally just made this announcement four seconds ago." And still, more
people from other rows will attempt to board.

This happens endlessly, everywhere. "Please don't stand here." Someone will
stand here. "Please step forward if you have a yellow ticket." Someone will
say "But nobody called the yellow tickets?"

Perhaps I'm too attentive or perhaps I shouldn't be annoyed by this, but I am
and I am.

~~~
ctdonath
The profusion of announcements negates them.

Just yesterday I noticed that a single bus door had SIXTEEN warning signs on
it. I dare suggest that nobody else noticed any of them that day.

------
timf
On a related topic: if you are a developer and are forced to deeply
concentrate in public places, after three years of doing that daily I arrived
at a system that could keep me coding.

1\. Figure out what earplugs work well. Working well means good sound
suppression but also means earplugs that you can have in your ear comfortably
for long stretches. I can sleep the entire night in the ones I settled on (I
buy them bulk: [http://www.amazon.com/Moldex-6800-Pura-Fit-Soft-
Earplugs/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Moldex-6800-Pura-Fit-Soft-
Earplugs/dp/B00900WTHI/) ).

2\. Get over-the-ear headphones, the kind that physically enclose your entire
ear. Mine are noise-canceling as well but most of the benefit comes from the
enclosure.

3\. Play a white noise mp3 into the headphones. Turn the volume up to the
point where you can just hear it through the earplugs you're also wearing.

With that setup, I would not even notice people talking next to me. People
would often have to wave their hand by my laptop screen to get my attention
(to ask me to share the coffeeshop's power outlet or what not).

I rent an office now and am happy that is not a daily situation for me, but
that's how I made the best of it after much experimentation.

~~~
spectrum
Good advice, but don't you think there is a possible danger in you not hearing
outside noises? There is a reason we have ears you know, to alert us in case
of danger when it is not necessarily visible to the eye.

~~~
delian66
Yes, of course there is danger, but the probability of a really hazardous
event, which you may avoid by hearing, is very very low for most modern
civilised environments where people spent prolonged periods of time, like
sitting in plains/trains, or being in city rooms together with other people.

I would not consider reasonable using earplugs while walking in a jungle, or
standing in a road/open space, or when driving a car myself :-) .

------
jerf
Sometimes, the urbanites on HN will pile on suburbia, wondering how anybody
can live there. This is one of the reasons I often feel the same way, only in
reverse. As I sit here, I can not hear any sounds not originating in my house.
While I certainly visit the places with Musak, loud bars, et al, I don't
_live_ there. It isn't as grating when there is surcease.

I'm not saying that Here It Is, The Reason Suburban Living Is Better Than
Anything Anywhere. I'm just saying, if you're one of those people who just
_can't_ imagine what anyone would find appealing about the lifestyle, but were
also nodding your head in agreement with this piece... now you can.

~~~
ANH
I'm in suburbia now, and the noise is nearly constant, year-round. I grew up
on a farm, have lived in the hearts of major cities, the middle of an isolated
mesa -- basically covered the spectrum of sound environments.

Nowhere has the noise gotten to me like in suburbia. Two words: leaf blowers.

~~~
portlander52232
The other day I was awakened by the... most... annoying... sound... in the
universe: a leaf blower outside my window.

Worse! They blew everything _directly into the bicycle parking row_! Years'
worth of dirt on my bike in one minute. Debris and filth in all the works.
Earthworms. Had to completely detail the whole bike.

Meanwhile, leaves are some of the best compost available. Why do we blow them
noisomely to rot on the "unused" areas of the pavement (i.e., bike parking,
bike lanes)?

------
MemorableZebra
I'm surprised no one found this condemnation of a society "constantly getting
louder with this new internet generation" to be oddly similar to the idea that
"each successive generation is getting more and more immoral" -- an idea that
I would argue has not only been thoroughly debunked, but also rather
impossible as well.

Of course I'm not saying that overall our cities haven't increased in their
background volume by virtue of more people and things such as air planes and
leaf blowers, but to go another step further and call a entire generation of
people inconsiderate and loud because they're used to being on a "solipsistic"
internet smacks of a classic sense generational moral superiority.

And I'm also just as surprised that to come here, with as good of a community
as I feel HN has, after scanning through the comments section, not a single
person mentioned this in the first comment in each comment-tree. Instead it
was a mess of "well, yes, us quiet people are so superior...".

~~~
qu4z-2
It seems plausible that with the steadily increasing population density the
overall loudness or chances of being near a source of loudness is actually
increasing.

Also, "more immoral" is a claim going back thousands of years, which is in
large part what makes it unlikely. The claim that the internet generation is
louder is only making a claim about a trend in the last 20 years or so.

------
greenyoda
The article notes: _"In his recent treatise on this subject (its title
regrettably unprintable here), the philosopher Aaron James posits that people
with this personality type are so infuriating — even when the inconvenience
they cause us is negligible — because they refuse to recognize the moral
reality of those around them."_

Out of curiosity, I searched for Aaron James and found the book whose title
could not be mentioned: _Assholes: A Theory_.[1] From Amazon's review of the
book:

 _What does it mean for someone to be an asshole? The answer is not obvious,
despite the fact that we are often personally stuck dealing with people for
whom there is no better name. Try as we might to avoid them, assholes are
found everywhere—at work, at home, on the road, and in the public sphere.
Encountering one causes great difficulty and personal strain, especially
because we often cannot understand why exactly someone should be acting like
that.

Asshole management begins with asshole understanding. Much as Machiavelli
illuminated political strategy for princes, this book finally gives us the
concepts to think or say why assholes disturb us so, and explains why such
people seem part of the human social condition, especially in an age of raging
narcissism and unbridled capitalism. These concepts are also practically
useful, as understanding the asshole we are stuck with helps us think
constructively about how to handle problems he (and they are mostly all men)
presents. We get a better sense of when the asshole is best resisted, and when
he is best ignored—a better sense of what is, and what is not, worth fighting
for._

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Assholes-A-Theory-Aaron-
James/dp/03855...](http://www.amazon.com/Assholes-A-Theory-Aaron-
James/dp/0385535651)

------
pud
Off topic, but I think that's the most beautiful illustration I've ever seen
accompanying an article. And the animation - just wonderful.

(I've visiting from my laptop. Assuming mobile version probably doesn't look
the same.)

~~~
rolleiflex
I concur. It's both beautiful and understated—I appreciate the visual acuity,
but I am more impressed with the fact that NYT, of all, is finally growing
past the era of crying "we're interactive!!!" out loud and starting to make
good, subtle and tasteful use of unique properties of the Web. This is
elegant.

~~~
publicfig
This was incredibly evident during the election. They're really leading the
pack in terms of using newer technologies as more than a tool to draw
attention to their articles, but to actually add depth to them.

------
brianchu
The funny thing is that two months ago when I was taking a train in France
with some friends, instead of having a quiet car, they had a _noisy_ car. And
it was really quiet in there, by our American standards. There were quite a
few elderly couples in the car, it seemed. We were talking and laughing and
were probably the loudest on the car. At the end, the person I was traveling
with who knew French remarked that the family next to us was talking about how
loud and annoying we were. No one told us to be quiet, of course, since this
_was_ the loud car.

~~~
peteretep
One of the following things is true:

* Americans speak louder than other people

* Something about the American accent means spoken American travels further and more piercingly than other languages

* People expect Americans to be louder, so there's massive selection bias at work...

Having travelled long and far, I suspect it's all three...

------
LaGrange
"Respecting shared public space is becoming as quaintly archaic as tipping
your hat to a lady, now that the concept of public space is as nearly extinct
as hats, and ladies."

...and there you get it. It's really about someone pining for the golden age,
and habits that weren't as innocuous as he presents it.

Nowadays we have to live in the same space with millions of people, who all
have different needs and habits. The kinds practicing rap on public transport
are probably using one of the few spaces they feel safe to do so. It's
annoying to you, but in your golden age half of them probably wouldn't grow
into their current age, and the rest would be working in a factory. And just
your hat-tipping-gentleman social position would mean that you can order them
around. Unless you're unlucky enough to actually be one of them. Is this
really something we want to present as more civilized? Because for me, the
respect is obvious in that people can do a lot more than in your golden age
(which was mostly more stinky and loud than in your icons).

We get quiet cars. We are able to acoustically isolate areas in libraries to
an extent impossible. And at least Swiss quiet cars are actually quiet cars,
so your headphones and typing is annoying others, and you will be reproached
for it, so please use a notebook.

While settling down I talked a bit with my neighbors. And there's one thing I
found out: I'm not the quiet one. We all were. Just at different times. When I
shut down on the weekend, my upstairs neighbor likes to exercise. At time I
like playing computer games, she does late work from home stuff. And your
noisy teenagers may turn out to read books or code at home. No matter how
impossible it seems to you that a woman with a cellphone might actually be a
coder, or an artist.

Ah, and more and more railways are carrying quiet cars. So maybe portraying
them as last vestiges of your vow-of-silence lifestyle is somewhat misguided.

~~~
corporalagumbo
That was a very nice post. Thank you.

------
ANH
Oh lord, yes. My particular nemesis: leaf blowers.

My office is in a residential neighborhood. The sound of a gas powered leaf
blower is at just the right frequency to penetrate the double-pane windows, my
noise-isolating earbuds, and it somehow overcomes all background noise. The
whine and revving is audible. All. Day. Long. From every direction.

I imagine to the operators it seems like a sensible choice -- What harm can I
possibly be doing? I'm just one guy blowing some leaves around! But to me --
the guy four blocks over trying to write code for a living -- it hurts deep in
my soul, and I wonder when exactly we became so fearful of physical activity.
When did we forget how to USE A RAKE?!?!

I know, I know. Cry me a river.

~~~
aklemm
Agreed. Those things are the worst. Hopefully the broom and rake have a
renaissance.

~~~
moozoo
Doubt it.

The person using a leaf blower isn't using one because they enjoy it. They
have another 5000 places to manicure afterward—a rake no longer enters the
equation since its coefficient of expedience is so low. This in turn, of
course, impacts price. The employer of said manicurist passed the buck because
they didn't have the time to rake it themselves.

I'd imagine that for those irritated by things of the sort, when it comes to
irritants, unkempt yards would also somehow find a way to break concentrations
as widely as loud leaf blowers.

~~~
ANH
If it truly were an expedient, I would be able to understand a little better,
but based on observations of my neighbors' leaf blowing routines, it is no
faster than I am when I'm raking the yard. Even the professional landscapers
that swarm the neighborhood take their sweet time. A good rake can push a huge
amount of leaves across a yard in no time.

------
sramsay
I am nearly driven to madness by the torrent of noise in public environments.
I don't expect places full of people to be quiet, per se, but I do not
understand why every such space needs to have eight screens and speakers every
ten feet pumping some kind of inane music.

I spend a lot of time in airports, and I'm always amazed at how hard it is to
find _any_ space that is not subjected to either Fox/CNN or whatever insipid
music they've decided would be "good for this space." I'm always grateful to
find one of those ridiculous chapels that tries not to offend anyone of any
religion while still being "spiritual." Because -- praise God! -- at least
it's _quiet_.

Honestly, I just want to read and think. I respect those who would rather
talk, or sing, or whatever; I can move away from that if it's bothering me.
But how do you move away from environments that are deliberately designed to
make sure you are never without noise?

~~~
personlurking
You should never move to Brazil, lol. It's the capital of public noise and,
more so, the public kind that invades the private space. Everyone accepts it
and takes part in it, meaning those who want quiet are virtually nil.

------
ghshephard
I suspect the author will be unhappy to hear that the key message I took away
from his nice little story (with David Foster Wallace quotes, no less) - was
that he was identifying himself as the jerk who loudly whacks away at his
keyboard, annoying the crap out of people around him. 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. Or perhaps some combination of both.

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.

As to why the "riff-raff" tend to be a little more considerate on public
transport - One reason is usually because you don't want to piss somebody off
and get a punch to the head. They tend to play things a little more roughly on
Oakland public transport than they do on Amtrak.

~~~
cyanbane
> _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.

~~~
ghshephard
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.

~~~
apu
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/>

------
Fargren
I think this being loud is particularly ingrained on the US culture. I have to
say, tourists from the US are notably loud on Argentina. We have a large
amount of tourists on Buenos Aires, but it's always the US accent you can hear
all the way across a crowded train wagon or room. I can't imagine why that is.

~~~
shawn-butler
Given our evolutionary history as a tribal species, perhaps the human brain
and auditory system is predisposed for survival purposes to make it seem as
though unfamiliar dialects/voices/sounds are louder than they actually are.

Without taking an objective measure of the decibels involved you might just be
giving in to a stereotype?

~~~
Fargren
It is possible that it's some sort of auditory bias, but there's people from
all over the world here (big tourist city and all), and it's almost always
people form the US that I notice are loud. Even with the British, I can't
normally hear them without being quite close, so it's not the language. Of
course, I can't tell how many quiet Americans I've walked by without noticing
because they are quiet.

~~~
newscasta
That's interesting, I've had the opposite experience, so I'm guessing it's a
perception issue. I'm from Buenos Aires and currently live in New York, both
loud cities. I find Argentine tourists around here are especially loud. Maybe
I'm tuned to pick up my own accent, or maybe tourists are louder than locals?
(the excitement of the new?) Or maybe, as you point out, we just don't notice
the quiet ones and assume they are locals...

------
wam
I used to love the quiet car. I appreciated the serenity and the opportunity
to listen to just the noise of the train. But the hostile shushing (2-3 times
near me per trip, usually) started to bother me more than the transgressions.
I began to worry constantly, checking and re-checking to make sure I had my
phone on silent mode. Now I sit one car back and relax. The quiet car is good
for people who can deal with it, and that's fine with me.

------
ComputerGuru
Is the "Quiet Car" really as intellectual as Kreider makes it out to be? Is it
really full of readers and intellectualists, people that take pride in
knowledge and are aloof from the mundane?

This is an interesting situation: put the people you're most likely to enjoy a
good, thought-provoking, intellectual, factually-backed, philosophical
conversation in a car together... where they take a vow of silence for the
duration of the ride.

~~~
peteretep
> Is the "Quiet Car" really as intellectual as Kreider makes it out to be? Is
> it really full of readers and intellectualists, people that take pride in
> knowledge and are aloof from the mundane?

No.

> This is an interesting situation: put the people you're most likely to enjoy
> a good, thought-provoking, intellectual, factually-backed, philosophical
> conversation in a car together... where they take a vow of silence for the
> duration of the ride.

Perhaps the worst place imaginable to find interesting conversation is in
groups of self-selected "intelligentsia". People talking to each other who are
getting a sense of validation from sounding clever leads to the kind of drivel
that makes Ayn Rand fans over-excitable, and other people despair of the state
of humanity.

If you're looking for thought-provoking and intelligent conversation,
cultivate a group of friends who you like listening to, but at NO POINT
advertise it as some kind of salon. If you're in a big city, there are often
large groups of people who work in finance with brains the size of planets,
and absolutely no intellectual outlet. I have had great success with "dinner
clubs" where the stated aim is to eat good food and drink nice wine...
Alternatively I have been led to thoughts of homicide by people gathering to
have "clever conversations".

~~~
kahawe
You perfectly summed up what I have been feeling about quite a few people ever
since I first met them.

Very typically they are the "oh no I do not own a television set" type because
allegedly 100% ALL of TV is just pure nonsense and not a single good program
has EVER been shown on TV, according to them. And they always make it a very
grave point in ever conversation that they read books and a certain book said
this-and-that. As if the fact they read a printed book alone really sets them
apart from the rest of the population and this kind of information could have
never been shared on TV or a good website. Yet they fail to apply anything
they read in an actual conversation where they are actually responding to the
other person and adapting things to the given context of the conversation and
not just dropping names and empty, allegedly-sophisticated phrases.

And then they always make it another grave point to tell everyone how much
they value and require intelligent conversation and how they see themselves as
educated and well-read and they make sure to drop the right names and point to
that fact as often as possible.

I think that is why those self-proclaimed "intelligence salons" are so
horrible, specifically because they attract this kind of people.

------
jgannonjr
Did anyone else notice the hidden text "#@$%&!" at the end of the last
paragraph? Does this have some kind of meaning or purpose, I can't figure out
why it would be there...

<p itemprop="articleBody"> We’re a tribe, we quiet ones, we readers and
thinkers and letter writers, we daydreamers and gazers out of windows. We are
a civil people, courteous to excess, who disdain displays of anger as childish
and embarrassing. But the Quiet Car is our territory, the last reservation to
which we’ve been driven. And we can be pushed too far. Our message to the
barbarians who would barge in on our haven with their chatter and blatting
gadgets like so many bulldozers is: <span
style="color:#fff;"><em>#@$%&!</em></span> </p>

~~~
vsync
I read this article in the printed newspaper at a coffee shop today.

The "message" at the end of the article was a graphic of a finger over a pair
of lips. Presumably from the description in the article it is Amtrak's "Quiet
Car" logo.

No idea how or why it ended up the way it did online.

------
weisser
The problem with the quiet car is that offenders usually do not realize they
are in it. Unless you travel on Amtrak frequently (I don't do it often but
certainly more than the average person) you may not even realize a quiet car
even exists. It isn't common to have a quiet section on an airplane or any
other form of public transportation so I can see why people would not expect
this.

Ignorance is no excuse for being loud repeatedly after this is pointed out but
I almost always travel in the quiet car and have found that conductors only
infrequently make announcements explaining that the car has special rules-
perhaps 25% of the trips I've taken.

I cannot blame someone for missing the sign that says, "Quiet Car" but I can
place some responsibility on Amtrak for not making the quiet car and the rules
that go along with it more obvious.

~~~
britta
Not every Amtrak line even has a quiet car - long-distance lines don't have
them, and even some regional lines don't have them (such as the Pacific
Surfliner).

~~~
weisser
I usually go Boston to CT or NY where there is always a quiet car but my point
about it not being made obvious enough to those that aren't aware of its
existence seems like a fairly simple fix.

There will always be the people that do not feel the rules apply to them but
most of the loud people I encounter in the quiet car did not realize where
they were.

------
AngryParsley
A lot of the problem is caused by cell phones. People talking on phones are
usually louder than in-person chatter. And while a conversation is
distracting, half of one is worse. Also, cell phone conversations on public
transit seem to be more common than talking in-person. Everyone has a phone,
but not everyone takes the train with a conversation partner.

Different cultures have different rules about mobile phones. While vacationing
in Japan, I noticed that _nobody_ talks on their phone on trains. It's
wonderful. As soon as I came back to the states, I was crudely reminded how
horrible American cell phone etiquette is.

A few years ago, I bought a cell phone jammer. It has paid for itself many
times over. If you find yourself distracted by obnoxious people on cell
phones, buy one. You won't regret it.

~~~
jamesjyu
They've done studies showing that listening to half the conversation is the
key to why it's annoying
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/05/cellph...](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/05/cellphones-
driving-annoying.html)

------
gfodor
Unless I missed it, the author fails to mention the other front line in this
battle: the airplane. Sure, the roar of the engines can be deafening, but the
cellphone ban more than offsets that. I've found that more than anything else
flying reminds me of just how productive you can be when free of distractions.
Heck, the nature of productivity itself changes: instead of measuring it by
how many emails you've answered, it's measured by how much progress you've
made in thinking about problems or expanding your knowledge. Part of me is
disappointed with the prevalence of wifi on flights now -- it was inevitable,
but being put in a situation where I had no other choice but to read a book
I've been meaning to read or to simply just sit and think for a few hours
provided a really important ballast in maintaining sanity.

------
jeremymims
I'm one of those people that enjoys a certain level of noise... usually music
without lyrics. I can work without it but I find that I can more quickly get
into "the zone" when I have a beat.

I'm also not a huge fan of sitting in especially quiet libraries or buildings.
In college, the buildings were old enough that you'd start to hear the buzzing
of the lights, the tick of an old clock, the hum of an air conditioner, a
heating pipe clanging in the distance. When I think of the "quiet car", I just
assume all the little things would get annoying (as it seems in this article).
I always found that more distracting than creating my own baseline.

That being said, with all the flying I've done the past few years a $300 set
of Bose noise canceling headphones has been a bargain investment. My music, my
work, and a whole lot less of everything else.

~~~
rcthompson
It's a "quiet car", but it's still on a moving train. It's not going to be
anything like the deafening silence of an old empty building that you
describe. You're always going to have the noise of the train.

------
geoka9
Having grown up in Eastern Europe, I was always reminded by my parents not to
talk loudly in public places. The habit is so ingrained that even now I'm
uncomfortable speaking up when strangers are around.

When I visited North America for the first time, I was of course surprised by
loud voices everywhere, but I just shrugged it off and assumed that it was a
cultural thing.

And now this article surprised me again.

~~~
odiroot
I am from Central Europe and was brought up similar way. But this kind of
upbringing is rare here.

Even some older people (I guess they should know better) tend to be loud,
obnoxious and really don't care about their fellow passengers.

Also, nowadays it's completely normal for a parent to let their kid loose and
don't mind at all that it is screaming or bothering other people. They're
happy as long as said kid is not troubling them.

I'm always surprised how calm and orderly are children of Asian descent
(usually immigrants' or tourists').

------
Deejahll
Woah is that...? It is!

Author Tim Kreider may be better known by some of us Internet folk as purveyor
of the fine web-comic "The Pain": <http://thepaincomics.com/>

------
gnufied
I am surprised no one has brought the topic of working from Coffee shops. This
is one of the things that I have tried but never worked for me.

Worst yet, me & my friend were consulting for a startup, whose co founders
worked from a coffee shop. One day some discussion was required around certain
design elements and we had a Skype call scheduled. when the call started,
there was unbelievable noise from their side. I asked them to call later. 3
times this happened and there was always tons of noise. Somehow it was
perfectly fine for them, but we couldn't hear anything. I tried politely
asking to give respect to hours we are spending for them.

It is odd, how people ignore effect of noise.

------
majormajor
I guess I'm one of the people who ruin it for everyone else. I'm ADD as all
get out when it comes to something I'm not really into, but when I'm lasered
in on something interesting, it would pretty much take a fire drill to break
me out of that. I even prefer a background din in that situation over dead
silence—so I've never been bothered by, or spoken out against, any of the
trends away from silence. I love open-plan workspaces since I can have an ear
open for anything particularly important or interesting (especially if it's
relevant to what I'm working on).

~~~
peteforde
I would happily re-mortgage my house to afford surgery which would leave me
with a brain that works as you describe.

~~~
Gring
Buy some earplugs. Same effect, much cheaper.

~~~
peteforde
I assure you that it's really just not that simple.

I am adversely effected by all manor of sensory offence — including motion in
my peripheral, heat, smells, unpredictable vibration.

The real problem is that it's a downward spiral: if something is bothering me
and I become agitated, I am far more likely to become aware of other things
which conspire to keep me from being productive. Ultimately, I fall into a
state of manic anxiety and get really down on myself for feeling so
ineffective.

I really wish I could just put in earplugs. They irritate my ears.

------
FrojoS
Imagine a future, where you could simply switch your hearing ability on and
off.

When I first thought about this, I got so excited, that I started writing a
science fiction story around the implications. Unfortunately, I'm a horrible
writer.

I am not talking about noise canceling headphones or ear plugs but something
like a neurological switch. I assume the "easiest" way to do this, would be a
surgery in which one cuts the nerves between the ears and the brain and
installs an electronic switch. But I know nothing about this stuff.

~~~
conjecTech
I've actually envied people with cochlear implants for having this ability.
The idea of being able to turn on and off senses at will is kind of an amazing
thought. I personally have a hypersensitive sense of touch, and it is an
almost constant distraction. I can't count the number of times I've wished I
could toggle or perhaps just filter my senses.

It's still undoubtedly far off in the wings. I'm not sure if anything has been
done on the purely organic side, but I know that at least on the ECE side of
things our ability to effectively interact with organic systems is still quite
ineffective and brutish. The professor I had for digital signal processing
last year does some work with cochlear implants. He spent a lecture talking
about the current technologies, and the implantation and interfacing he
described was very destructive. There would undoubtedly be severe ability loss
if they were used on an otherwise capable person to try to enable this
ability. It would be nice if we evolutionary developed some high-pass
preprocessing. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that will take a good bit
longer to develop than man-made alternatives.

I'd be interested to read what you've written if you'd like another set of
eyes on it.

------
the_cat_kittles
In Japan, you get a level of public acoustic courtesy that is wonderful.
Coming back here made me realize how outrageous it is that we tolerate things
like people talking on a cellphone on an otherwise silent bus.

~~~
jrockway
I remember taking the Shinkansen when you could still smoke on the train.
Coming back here made me realize how sane it it is that we don't tolerate
things like smoking indoors.

~~~
the_cat_kittles
yes, I'm not saying Japan is strictly better...

------
accidc
It amuses me when people from western countries complain about noise(most
comments contain clues to location).

Having lived most of my life in India, noise has never been an issue for me,
even while doing tasks that require intense concentration. It's like the brain
implements a band pass filter for most ambient noise, you never notice it. I
have also noticed that the more I concentrate on a task at hand, the less I
notice anything else around me.

On the other hand, I have been living outside India for the past few years and
I notice noise a lot more.

Make what you want of this but it has lead me to believe that our perception
of noise is a function of our state of mind, the ambient noise level and our
conditioning/habituation. The takeaway being that it is possible to learn to
ignore noise, since in most situations one may not be able to control the
source of the noise.

~~~
GlennS
I get that too, if I'm reading or writing then nothing short of shouting or a
physical tap on the shoulder can bring me back to reality.

But I'm not convinced everyone can learn it. I know people who are light
sleepers and get jolted awake in the night because of noise. You'd think if
their brains could adapt to filter out the ambient noise then they would have
for the situation. Regularly interrupted sleep is probably pretty annoying.

------
bazzargh
I gave up reserving seats in the quiet car after last time - a man sat next to
me and handed his grandson (aged 3 or 4) a Bopit. Yes, one of these:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH4XHwefPVY>

There followed a short argument where I questioned why he would book the quiet
car in advance and give the kid a toy where noise was the point of the game,
and not, say, a colouring book.

Anyway. It's just less stressful to be in part of the train where noise is
expected, because I have /never/ been in a quiet car which didn't have people
on mobile phones, clacking keyboards, and kids with headphoneless gameboys.

------
manaskarekar
Makes you wonder, if the quiet car was full, would the author have come to
this civil resolution?

And where does one draw the line.. someone would call for a quieter car.

Interesting read but doesn't suggest anything other than it is hard to find
silence in public places.

------
mcdowall
I travel two hours each way to work to London, and likewise, I sit in the
quiet carriage.

I've been that person to stand up, walk over and have a quiet word, but all to
often I'm met with hostility and shock that we should even dare to police our
own quiet space.

The regular commuters in the whole are respectful and as the writer alludes
to, treat the carriage as their personal quiet time, but as Brits,
confrontation such as this is a cultural misnomer, we just don't tend to do it
and I can't think that I will ever feel happy about having to do so, much more
I just wish people would be more respectful.

------
tehwalrus
London Underground is a wonderful mixture of opposites in this respect.

During the very crowded morning rush, it is almost a capital offense to make a
sound (except perhaps some noise escaping from headphones). You can forget
about talking to another passenger, even a friend. Even looking happy while
not obviously reading something that might be funny is met with embarrassed
glances at feet at ceilings.

In the evening though, after about 9 or 10, the tube is full of groups on
their ways home from the pubs - then there are people singing, often whole
carriages will silently giggle at someone being an extrovert centre of
attention.

Finally, there is the etiquette surrounding when one must offer a seat to
someone else. the order of priority appears to be:

    
    
        * pregnant and (obviously) disabled people, plus new mothers.
        * old people (ladies first)
        * children (especially medium sized ones who look like they might actually sit 
          down, and/or shut up if given a seat)
        * the rest of us, in a reserved, passive aggressive scrum.
    

(also, obviously, talking to a complete stranger on the tube is a massive faux
pas, no matter the time of day...)

On quiet coaches specifically, I have to say that on British "mainline" trains
there is a big problem, which is reservations. For example, on virgin trains
there is always a quiet coach (both a standard and first class one), and a
coach with no reserved seats. If you want a seat at a busy time of day, you
must be one of the first to arrive at (on Virgin it's coach E) and take one
(it is even possible to get the prized window-side-facing-forwards-at-a-table
seats this way.) However, these coaches never coincide. Thus, if you want to
be in the quiet coach you must book a seat in advance, which is cheaper but
restricts you to a particular train - if you're late you must pay twice, and
if you're early you have to wait. This is important when you're on the tube
(which frequently has delays) and the trains from Euston to Manchester are
every 20 minutes (and absolutely packed in the evenings, especially Fridays,
in spite of this.) Given the convenience factor, I usually plump for coach E,
and risk the screaming babies/mobile chatterers - as another commenter pointed
out, this is why I paid £80 for a pair of headphones.

------
ALee
I'm one of those loud Americans (ENTJ - for what that's worth). To those who
know me, they'll say that I'm one of the most talkative people they know. I'm
not always proud of my talkativeness, but let me try to explain why we act the
way we do.

For extroverts, social interaction energizes us. I'm almost like a vampire if
I'm around introverted people. It may be the difference between tribal vs.
modern relationships, but in many big families (generally with less income,
but not always the case), you need to say something loudly and constantly to
get what you want.

We also tend to feel noise is comfortable. I've lived in urban areas, where if
there isn't noise, it is discomforting if not dangerous. You may have felt the
same way at a get-together when there isn't any background music or when you
meet a stranger for the first time.

For many people in this world, they have the TV on all the time or music
blaring 24/7. I'm not saying it's more productive. God knows watching tv while
doing anything beyond rote tasks is not a recipe for success, but it makes the
task more bearable.

As to why we're loud... sometimes it's opinion, sometimes it's emotional
release, while other times it's just social pruning. It doesn't mean that
we're not thinkers though, it just means we think out loud. It was a key
difference between me and another friend I had an argument with, where I
wanted to talk it out and she wanted to run away and breathe for a bit.

For us, noise/discussion is just as important to the Quiet Ones as quiet.

P.S. one caveat, I need quiet when I'm writing, working, reading, or even
watching a movie, so I'm not the typical type.

------
mynameishere
I lived in the "quiet" floor in my dorm in college. No greater farce has ever
been endured. I really wish noise-cancelling headphones existed then.

~~~
queensnake
Enh; I have the best, Bose QC-15s, and they don't do much.

------
doctoboggan
I am a 'Quiet One' and I used to search high and low for locations I could
find peace. But recently I've stopped depending on my surroundings being quiet
and started listening to white noise on my phone or laptop. I use
simplynoise.com (they have an app) and I can find my quiet place even in a
crowded coffee shop. I also use it often in the office when I need to get work
done without distractions.

------
rcthompson
I can deal with just about any noise of any volume as long as that noise
doesn't include any intelligible speech. Muffled voices are fine, the combined
voices of an entire crowd are fine as long as I can't make out what any one
voice is saying. But as soon as the part of my brain responsible for
interpreting spoken words gets activated, I lose the ability to concentrate on
anything.

------
mark_l_watson
Quiet spaces are important to some of us, but my bbrother always has music or
the TV on. He admits disliking quiet.

The small town where I live has strong no noise laws. You can't generate sound
that can be heard outside your yard unless it is gardening noise - during
business hours. Noise is one reason I no longer want to live in a city.

~~~
dickbasedregex
Where do you live? I need to move there.

~~~
mark_l_watson
Sedona Arizona. Do a Google image search :-)

------
philip1209
Are the random white characters at the end of the last paragraph a message
about blending in?

[http://a7d0f80a5fa1647cdaad-1414aef150de5db27755b8a53ed3a9c0...](http://a7d0f80a5fa1647cdaad-1414aef150de5db27755b8a53ed3a9c0.r40.cf2.rackcdn.com/Screen%20Shot%202012-11-18%20at%207.36.18%20PM.png)

~~~
tbloncar
Hm. Interesting. Might it be 'quiet!'?

------
SkyMarshal
_> “I’m not talking about cellphone conversations,” he said, “I’m talking
about your typing, which really is very loud and disruptive.”

I was at a loss. I learned to write on a typewriter, and apparently I still
strike the keyboard of my laptop with obsolete force. “Well,” I said, trying
to figure out which of us, if either, was the jerk here, “I don’t think I’m
going to stop typing. I’m a writer; I sit in here so I can work.”_

Funny, keyboard 'strikers' bug me too, but thought I was alone in that. Unless
your keyboard is dying and requires force to operate, a light touch does less
wear and tear, conserves your own energy (marginally, fwiw), and is much
quieter for those around you. There's no apparent reason for the way some
people almost attack their keyboard, other than misdirected zeal, eagerness,
or angst.

------
sbandyopadhyay
An article titled "The Quiet Ones" was posted by user "wallflower"? That's
like a pun. A quiet pun.

~~~
namank
Article resonates with the user!

------
niels_olson
Has anyone noticed even the libraries are not immune to cellphones? Someone
should start selling phone booths to libraries: people who need to take a call
can use the booth.

I have carried ear plugs with me for years (two fresh pairs in a small pill
bottle, in my briefcase). In a moment of sleep-deprived delerium in an
airport, I bought the Bose QC-15s. I love them. I am a huge fan of
instrumental music. We have an offer in on a house one bedroom smaller than
our current rental, which is perfect: I have an excuse to get a writer's shed.

I would pay a membership fee to anyone who could build a Quiet Car Hacker
Space within 5 miles of my house. QCHS: where are you?

But seriously: phone booths in libraries: it's brilliant. Somebody: do it!

------
napoleond
Here’s to the quiet ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see
things differently. While some may see them as the quiet ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are quiet enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

------
vijayr
I'd like to add "photo" pollution also to this. It is near impossible to go to
a party, or a tourist spot and _actually_ enjoy the place/occasion.
Photos/flashes everywhere, all the time - even the most useless/mundane things
being photographed, all the time.

If you are in new york city, you can't even walk peacefully on the road -
you'll have to stop to be "considerate" to the people who are blocking the
sidewalk taking pictures. I went to a speech - the room was quite dark, that
still didn't stop people from taking pics. It seemed that most people there
were interested in taking pics than the speech itself, which I find very
disrespectful to the speaker.

All of it is just annoying.

------
ranza
I find it crazy hard to tell people that they are noisy. Mainly because i feel
like im very egocentric for wanting quiet times. We sit in a large room with a
lot of people and i guess we have to make space for each and everyone if we
want to get along. But since im the only one writing code and the rest are
mostly making graphics, im the only one that requires some sort of quiet time
around me. It can be really hard to tell people what you need when your the
only one that really needs it. I mostly ends up sitting with my headphones on
and listen to noise like rainymood.com to block other peoples noise out. Seems
weird but it works for me.

------
m0nd0nger0
As I once heard someone say in Spain - I prefer the noise of life to the
silence of death

~~~
pjscott
Those aren't your only options.

~~~
theyare
Yes, they are.

------
kogus
This reminds me of "The Pedestrian", by Bradbury.
[http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/files/pedestrian-by-
bradbury-1...](http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/files/pedestrian-by-
bradbury-1.pdf)

------
civild
I've worked next to someone that was extremely harsh on their keyboard - full
blown hammering the keys, with the whole desk shaking - and even in a medium-
noise office it was infuriating to work next to.

After a few light-hearted suggestions that he be a bit lighter on the keys, I
ended up having to point out how much it was putting me off my work.
Thankfully he was good enough to change his habits while he remembered, but he
would soon idly begin bashing again.

On a similar note personal space invaders are even worse, but I'll contain my
vitriol on that subject for now.

------
archagon
I'm a bit surprised that so many people NEED a dead-silent environment to
concentrate on their work. Maybe it's because I grew up with a snoring dad,
but I can completely tune out a crowd of people without breaking a sweat,
while all my coworkers would go crazy without their headphones. Honest
question: is this truly such a difficult skill to cultivate? You'd think it
would be a whole lot more beneficial in the long run than investing in an
expensive set of noise-cancelling equipment. But I don't know, maybe I'm just
going deaf!

------
darkarmani
Actually, the article has it wrong. The signs on the quiet car say this:
"Please refrain from loud talking or using cell phones in this car."

They don't say you need to whisper. I only remember because I saw people
shushed that weren't loudly talking and glanced up at the sign to double check
if you weren't allowed to talk at all and the sign only mentions "loud
talking."

Here's a link with a picture:
[http://roiword.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/conflict-and-the-
qui...](http://roiword.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/conflict-and-the-quiet-car/)

------
Zaheer
Did anyone notice the last line?: "Our message to the barbarians who would
barge in on our haven with their chatter and blatting gadgets like so many
bulldozers is: #@$%&!"

The symbols are in white font.

------
philsnow
A "finger-pressed-to-lips" icon is shown at the very end of the article. As
much as some HN denizens like to obsess over detail and polish (especially in
iconography), how can everybody not have noticed that the hand is facing the
"wrong" way?

Nobody shushes by putting their own hand in front of their own mouth like
that, they turn it 90 degrees. The only time the pictured arrangement happens
is when you put your finger on another person's lips, a very intimate and
unmistakable gesture.

------
unohoo
I've had the exact same experience on Caltrain. Although Caltrain does not
have a 'quiet car' per se, most of the every day commuters are aware of the
unspoken conduct of silence. Although there are a few folks who just cant get
off their phones and like to yap about non-stop. The worst part of it is that
most often, I end up being the asshole telling them to keep it down. I dont
know why some of the other folks dont speak up, even though they are equally
annoyed as I am

------
001sky
_Respecting shared public space is becoming as quaintly archaic as tipping
your hat to a lady, now that the concept of public space is as nearly extinct
as hats, and ladies._

\-- QFT

------
justlearning
I had an interesting thought experiment after replacing "quiet" with
"privacy".

While not everyone may not agree on the word replacement, I go through similar
emotions (as the author describes) when someone posts a photo (that has me and
others) on facebook without permission. I like to think that there are others
out there like me. I am one of those "quiet" snobs.

------
kitsune_
That's funny, the sentence at the end, before the pictogram, has the following
censored expletive in invisible text: #@$%&!

------
lars512
For people who can't get the quiet they need to do their work, try drowning it
out. I highly recommend Rainy Mood <http://www.rainymood.com/> which just
plays the sound of rain continuously. In open plan offices, sometimes it's the
best you can do.

------
chaz
Silicone keyboard skins cut down on typing noise. It's a little weird at
first, but I've found them to be helpful at keeping debris out as well as
being the guy typing in a meeting without people looking at me. I always bring
earbuds with me wherever I go as to not be distracted by other people.

------
joe24pack
The search for quiet and some peace, maybe that is why I like to go hiking in
remote places during colder weather. Yes there is still sound, but for some
reason I find the sound of water or a light wind far more peaceful than the
sound of people and the machines and gadgets they bring along.

------
scott_s
I prefer the moderate din of places like coffee shops for this reason. There's
usually enough background chatter, music and random noises going on that it's
easy to not actually _listen_ to any of it. It's only when there are but a few
noises that it becomes a problem, I think.

------
eshvk
Idea for any startup founders out there: Have quiet breakout rooms where one
can't talk in anything but a whisper. Hell, make it so that one can't even use
a Das Keyboard in there. I would be curious to run an A/B test on productivity
(say number of features produced). :-)

~~~
kmfrk
Someone already did the experiment, basically:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/study-
of-t...](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/study-of-the-day-
why-crowded-coffee-shops-fire-up-your-creativity/258742/). :)

~~~
eshvk
Let me try to answer the question seriously: I have worked in coffee shops
with ambient noise which I have been able to tune out. I believe that the
experiment is subtly different that what I had proposed because it is looking
at a different dimension of noise. The problem with noise at work is that it
gets harder to tune it out especially when some of that noise might be
relevant. This means that you get more distracted than when listening to some
person with a nasally voice is asking for non fat soy latte. Well, that is my
hypothesis anyway. :-)

~~~
pavel_lishin
I can filter out 99% of the noise at a coffee shop, because I can be certain
it doesn't apply to me.

I can filter out 50% of the noise at work, because it probably doesn't apply
to me.

I can filter out 10% of the noise at home, because if my wife is talking or
our cats are meowing, it's almost certainly directed at me.

~~~
eshvk
> I can filter out 10% of the noise at home, because if my wife is talking or
> our cats are meowing, it's almost certainly directed at me.

IMO the only advantage of working from home is that you can control all those
free variables that make you distracted: E.g. Get a quiet study where you tell
your wife, cat(s) etc that you cannot/will not be distracted during work
hours. Doing that at work can be tried but depending on the work place, may
not be kosher.

I personally prefer working in the library. I have been most productive doing
that back in school and sorely miss it.

~~~
pavel_lishin
> E.g. Get a quiet study where you tell your wife, cat(s) etc that you
> cannot/will not be distracted during work hours.

Well, sojacques already addressed the cat point, so they only thing I have to
add is that I live in Manhattan, in a very spacious place by our standards,
but one that doesn't really come with a study - not unless I wanted to tear
down everything in the closet, toss my wife's things into a box, and have a
space the size of a desk to work in :P

~~~
TheAmazingIdiot
No no no, you have it all wrong. You clean out the closet and all, then you
put the cat AND the wife in there so you can work outside...

------
Roelven
Ha this is a great article. I too look for quietness and find myself more and
more turning off music just to allow myself to think properly. And yes- one of
the virtues of staying late in the office is the actual quietness, which is a
shame.

------
xradionut
My saving grace is that I live a mile away from a library that has study rooms
and actual encourages quiet in the adult areas. I also wear earplugs and
shooter muffs at home to block out the noise from my spouse and pets.

------
stretchwithme
One thing I have noticed, about myself and others, is that people are more
oblivious to noise and how much they generate when they are in a group. It
seems that a group doing most things makes many think its just fine.

------
marknutter
I wonder how "The Quiet Ones" would handle someone with a disability like
Tourettes syndrome or with some sort of medical equipment that made an
annoying noise. I'd give anything to watch the moral dilemma play out.

------
stickydink
The quiet car is great for returning home in the morning with a hangover...

------
rumcajz
Are there societies that are notorious for being quiet? Finland, maybe?

------
stretchwithme
They say a single noise bothers people more in the country than the same noise
does in the city. Perhaps the same is true on the train. It seems like stress
I don't need.

------
nevster
In Sydney they've instituted the same idea - on the inter-urban trains the
first and last carriages are now quiet cars. It's great!

------
queensnake
I look forward to the day when workplace noise is treated like second-hand
smoke.

------
namank
Why can't you control yourself instead of the outside circumstance?

------
MrMan
I fear for you lot when this article is revealed as satire.

------
kahawe
There are two things I am always wondering about... one is what all these
people are actually talking about for hours on end. I am a very quiet person
but I see and hear pretty much everything going on around me even if it
appears I am dis-connected. I just don't open my mouth unless I really
actually have something to say. So I just have no idea what I might be missing
in my life that I don't have all these things to talk about for hours and
hours.

And the second thing that baffles me even more: I basically have to apologize
at work when I have my ear plugs in because my over-sensitive boss feels like
"we are ignoring her" when actually we are just trying to get some work done
and that takes focus and I need all the noise blocked out for that. But
someone who has never done any software engineering work probably really
cannot relate and understand why that matters.

------
chrislong
i haven't read this entire thread, but i've read enough to say this: custom
earplugs? noise cancelling headphones? white noise soundtracks? are you
serious? the problems discussed here took place in a space specifically
designated for quiet. why can't people make an effort to comply? if you want
to make noise, go somewhere else. i literally cannot believe what i'm reading
here. shaddap!!!!

this brings to mind the BWCA in northern minnesota. pure, unspoiled
wilderness. many want to change that, introducing cellphone towers, water
slide theme parks, boats with motors ...

to which i say: the vast majority of america has been "civilized" -- can't you
leave one place alone for refuge?

in this case it's the quiet car. everywhere else is noisy, which is
great/fine, but cannot you respect the desires of people wanting refuge in one
tiny place? sheeeeeesh.

~~~
jff
Dear Sir,

I wish to protest the previous letter, which makes all people who type WORDS
in CAPITALS seem INSANE. Many of my friends type like this, and only a few of
them are RANTING LUNATICS.

Yours sincerely,

Major Charles Smith, Deceased (Mrs.)

------
dschiptsov
Hell is the "ordinary people".)

~~~
kahawe
Curiously enough, this Sartre quote (originally _l'enfer, c'est les autres_ )
is used in a very different sense from what it originally meant. Typically
people like to quote it as an allegedly-educated way of saying all people are
annoying - when originally it was nothing but the end of Sartre's novel "No
Exit" in which one of the main characters is baffled by the fact that hell
doesn't need torture devices but just a group of people you can't escape for
eternity. The "can't escape for eternity" part is key.

~~~
dschiptsov
A little bit broader interpretation, it seems, also valid.)

Actually it was a weak joke, paraphrasing pg's passage about ordinary people.

~~~
kahawe
I think it is just a wrong interpretation, really, because people present it
as if "even" Sartre said all people are hell, whenever they are feeling
reclusive or disappointed in humanity.

None of that is in the original quote since it is way more specific and
context-oriented.

