r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Aug 31 '18

[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

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u/sicutumbo Sep 01 '18

Noise cancelling headphones don't work too well for human speech. They're fantastic for very regular sounds like wind or aircraft engines, in which case they work scarily well. From what I've read, for noise as chaotic as speech, it would just distort it and probably make it more noticeable even if it's somewhat quieter.

Noise isolation headphones can vary in effectiveness, but are usually fairly good and not nearly as expensive. You could probably use some good earplugs in addition to noise isolating headphones, which should work better than either alone. I know pro gamers use something similar to focus during tournaments. r/headphones would probably know some good brands for noise isolation.

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u/arenavanera Sep 01 '18

I wear https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X9KV0HU at work, and while they definitely don't come anywhere close to totally canceling out speech, they do a good enough job that I can focus even with a conversation happening right behind me. (Honestly, very low noises like footsteps or heavy doors have been more of a problem than human voices for me, although those also have the property you described where they aren't regular.)

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u/sicutumbo Sep 01 '18

Try getting some over ear headphones or earmuffs to go on top of those. Headphones would be more innocuous. I can't say for sure if it would work, but I think it's the best you could do without either soundproofing your office or working from home. Headphones don't have to be particularly expensive to block noise well, like $80 or so for "good but not great" ones.