CronoDAS comments on Working Mantras - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 August 2009 10:08PM

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Comment author: gwern 25 August 2009 06:05:00AM 6 points [-]

I don't listen to music while working, because of studies showing that, e.g., programmers listening to music are equally competent at implementing a given algorithm, but much less likely to notice that the algorithm's output is always equal to its input.

This is absolutely true. I'm a little shocked at how many programmers and other 'mind-workers' (students are especially bad at this) think that putting on some music is helpful, or neutral. It's neither; even classical music or chants hurt.

(I have no studies handy for this, but I've tried music with Mnemosyne, Gbrainy, and Dual N-back, and in all 3 and all the sessions, my statistical performance was hurt to a greater or less extent.)

Comment author: CronoDAS 25 August 2009 03:52:13PM 1 point [-]

I wonder if I should turn off the music when playing certain video games, then?

Even if music doesn't improve performance, putting on a Final Fantasy soundrack can still help me feel less frustrated. My auditory cortex rarely shuts up; if I'm not thinking in words at the moment, I very often find that I have some kind of tune looping in my head.