= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
SilasBarta comments on Vote Qualifications, Not Issues - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (185)
All of which are either obtainable through merely being hearing-impaired*, wearing ear-plugs, being raised by signing parents, or simple training.
Some benefits are bogus - for example, living in a noisy area doesn't work because the noxious noises (say, from passing trains) are low-frequency and that's where hearing is best; even the deaf can hear/feel loud bass or whatnot.
* full disclosure: I am hearing-impaired myself, and regard with horror the infliction of deafness or hearing-impairedness on anyone, but especially children.
I have the opposite problem, so perhaps I can add some insight.
Basically, I have Yvain's sensitivity to audio distractions, plus I have more sensitive hearing -- I'll sometimes complain about sounds that others can't hear. (And yes, I'll verify that it's real by following it to the source.)
Ear plugs don't actually work against these distractions -- I've tried it (I can sometimes hear riveting going on from my office at work). They block out a lot of those external sounds, but then create an additional path that allows you to hear your own breathing.
I agree that I wouldn't be better off deaf, but there is such a thing as too much hearing.
Have you tried simplynoise.com? For me, their Brown noise generator is the best thing for eliminating sound distractions.
I'll have to give that a try, thanks.
Have you tried noise cancelling headphones? I found them pretty effective for cutting out audio distractions at work (when playing music). I stopped using them because they were a little too effective - people would come and try to get my attention and I'd be completely oblivious to their presence.
I've tried noise-cancelling headphones, but without playing music through them, because that is itself a distraction to me. It only worked against steady, patterned background noise.
I find certain types of music less distracting than the alternative of random background noise. Trance works well for me because it is fairly repetitive and so doesn't distract me with trying to listen to the music too closely. It also helps if I'm listening to something I'm very familiar with and with the tracks in a set order rather than on shuffle. Mix CDs are good because there are no distracting breaks between tracks.
Seconding all of this except the bit about set order rather than shuffle, which I haven't tried - it otherwise matches the advice I was going to give. Also, songs with no words or with words in a language you don't speak are better than songs with words, and if you don't want or can't tolerate explicitly noise-canceling headphones, earplugs + headphones with the music turned up very loud also works.
Fair enough. It would be surprising if everyone had exactly optimal hearing.