

Ask HN: What music do you listen to at work? - wyuenho

Startup life, especially during the early days, can be lonely at times. Your emotions go like the roller coasters with every hit and miss. You are constantly chained at the desk, your parents don't understand what you do. Your girlfriend dumps you for not being able to spend more quality time with her and your friends think you are crazy. I found the only remedy is to listen to music that reminds me the good and poignant times in life. My productivity can literally jump 5x to 10x.<p>What music do you guys listen to at work?
======
mirkules
During times that require high concentration (like programming), I listen to
drum and bass. I find its repetitive nature combined with high energy
resembles something like auditory caffeine without the crash afterwards.

Music with words or highly technical music (like jazz or prog) distracts me
too much because of my musical background - I want to listen to every
intonation, play the notes over in my head, try to figure out the scales, etc.
But technical music is perfect during tasks that require only motor skills,
like soldering or writing documents (rock, metal, sometimes jazz)

~~~
knowledgesale
May I recommend here a specific album that goes along your lines in terms of
repetitive nature and intense rhythm pattern, of high quality and definetely
works caffeine-like for me?

It is Toi Doi, Creative Commons licensed and is available for download at
<http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/toi-doi-mother-pitch>

~~~
mirkules
Thanks. It's a little dance-y, but pretty good (can't argue with that price
either :)

I will throw one back at you: Fantastic Plastic Machine. Pretty interesting
mixing -- I would describe it as a Japanese version of Fatboy Slim.

------
EgeBamyasi
I find that a lot of Krautrock, especially the more psycadelic and/or
electronic flavour is perfect for programming. Try Can, Cluster, Klaus
Schulze, Kraftwerk and German Oak.

Also, less chaotic Free Improvisation and Free Jazz works very well for me as
long as Ive heard the work before. Try
NVP([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRkH7amPl8&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRkH7amPl8&feature=related))
and Ornette Colemans Town Hall, 1962

------
evanw
Lately I've been listening to a lot of Turntable.fm's "Coding Soundtrack"
station: <http://turntable.fm/coding_soundtrack3>

Otherwise, I enjoy things like Trent Reznor/NIN's instrumental stuff (like The
Social Network soundtrack), TRON soundtrack by Daft Punk, or anything by
Ratatat.

~~~
wyuenho
Daft Punk is great.

------
dmc
Instrumental music, like Pelican, God Is An Astronaut, Japanese Telecom and
some Classical music for coding.

~~~
EgeBamyasi
Thanks for pointing out Japanese Telecom.

------
ethank
When I'm coding I listen to movie soundtracks. When I'm doing emails its
usually vintage punk music. When I'm in a really really bad mood its really
really fast punk.

The Lost soundtracks are really good for coding actually.

------
ejvincent
Some days I like it more than others, but turntable.fm coding_soundtrack rooms
are usually pretty good (<http://turntable.fm/coding_soundtrack3>)

~~~
wyuenho
Too bad it's not currently available outside of the US.

------
BillSaysThis
Preferably uptempo stuff from among Springsteen, U2, Elvis Costello, Nick
Lowe, Allmans, Beatles, Beach Boys, Little Steven, Bebop Deluxe and Jeff Beck
with the occasional Girl Talk and ELP.

------
aniketpant
I would be different from the rest. I play rock when I am passing time, but
when it comes to hardcore coding, my background music is Metalcore.

It gives me a kick and my work speeds up :P

