"Rules" like this are silly to write down.<p>By telling people that wearing headphones is a signal that someone wants to be left alone, you're asking people to make assumptions about those of us wearing headphones with no intention to make a statement about our availability.<p>I wear headphones constantly, as do two of the guys I work with directly. We simply want to drown out office white noise, and wearing just one ear doesn't work for that. If Ryan is wearing headphones, that means he is secretly watching The Daily Show on the clock and there is no better time to interrupt him today. Sometimes my department will focus on changes to system audio, then everyone has headphones on.<p>Try learning how to ask someone to leave you alone. Or, put a sign up on your desk that says "I'm "not here' today, email me instead", one of our guys does that, its pretty unambiguous.
I work part-time as a barista, so I'll offer this version of the rule: The Barista's Headphones Rule<p>Wearing headphones while ordering your drink?<p>* No headphones, you get your drink as you wish<p>* One headphone, I make your drink and shoot you a meaningful glare<p>* Two headphones, I secretly make your drink decaf
I wonder what the ratio of programmers suffering from tinnitus is going to be in 10 or 15 years.<p>Being almost literaly forced to use headphones/earphones to perform one's job definitely says something about the working environnment.<p>I think/believe it's a given we - programmers, sysadmin, or computer guys* - should be given a noise-free environnment to work in.<p>Personnaly I can't focus on programming or any cognitive task (except my playing the guitar) while listening to music (even classicial, lounge, etc.).<p>* in fact, everyone who needs to think hard about problems should be. Heck... everyone working in an office should be entitled to a noise-free environnment when needed.
A more sensible rule: If I'm wearing headphones in/over both ears, it's possible I can't hear you, so you might want to make sure you have my attention before you talk to me from behind for ten minutes then get upset when I don't respond. Actually, forget the headphone part of that rule.
I made a geeky version of this using an industrial stack light, an Arduino, some MOSFETs, an RFID card reader, and node.js.<p>Pictures: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/dX33N" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/dX33N</a>
Videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bButG4EWSfE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bButG4EWSfE</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQK0fW6-7jA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQK0fW6-7jA</a><p>As my desk is in the far back corner of the office, and the light is visible from anywhere in the room, people know if I'm heads-down on something, away from my desk, or available for interruptions without having to come over and potentially interrupt me by asking. I can change the light by scanning my building ID card or using a web interface.<p>Note that this was done as an experiment to learn a bit about electronics, and a bit of an evolving joke to see how much random technology I can cram into a project. While I may be socially immature, I'm not as bad as "YOU CAN'T TALK TO ME WHEN THE RED LIGHT IS ON". I think it is useful, nevertheless, as an ambient cue when I am really trying to focus on a problem.
In my case, this couldn't be more wrong. One needs only wave their hand in my periphery to get my attention--this encourages others to come to me to bounce ideas, get opinions, etc.<p>Listening to music is definitely helpful to me when it comes to focusing on the task at hand, but it shouldn't come at the price of diminished capacity for collaboration.
Here's my trick to using headphones without injuring my hearing over the long term:<p>Wear earplugs.<p>Put in some good quality shooter's earplugs to block out most of the room noise. Then headphones. Turn the headphones to the <i>minimum</i> volume necessary to hear the music. So now you have no background noise, and a nice, low soundtrack to help kick out some work.
I can't focus without my music, it doesn't have to be loud but it has to be there, with bass and snares usually.<p>You'd think it's pretty obvious though that when you have earphones in you're focused, you don't want to be interrupted, sadly though, that's not the case for where I work. I'm still spoken to even when I'm not listening, I'm working, it's okay to email me or poke me but don't keep talking. I'm not listening.
For me it's more like (in a work environment)<p>No headphones, I'm sitting in a quiet productive environment and you can talk to me<p>1 headphone, I need to pay attention to the world while I'm trying to focus on a podcast or something<p>2 headphones, work environment so fouled up and loud I cannot concentrate and I'm not in a situation to fix it / am feeling too lazy to fix it.
Saw this as a funny meme a while ago, share it around. As for the need of a website with this on i'm not so sure its worth the domain cost to create this. Unless I am missing something.<p>I thought this would be some cool project that detected my headphone jack input and play some music or a error message if not detected.
This reeks of immaturity. Not since high school has the sentiment of "I'm wearing headphones to be left alone" been a popular or reasonable one. At least during those years, peers could look at you and make the mistake that you're so deep that music has more influence/meaning than the world around you. If this is, as I feel, an attempt to legitimize this kind of "signal" to other professionals who want to collaborate with you, I feel pretty sorry for the kid who's hosting this.<p>I can appreciate individuals who don't have the capacity to swap context throughout the day, but only when they can be mature enough to explain themselves to me like an adult; and I certainly don't need a visual accessory to que my interaction with them.
Related HN thread of a post from the PoV of the "other side":<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909409" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3909409</a><p>(spoiler: for MBA types, headphones = bad employee)
So a few people like it, a lot of people don't.<p>This has made HN front page. Regardless of whether it's suppose to be serious, funny, or facetious, I think it's working [by causing us to discuss it]. Look this discussion is actually a great thing we are having... some folks think this is a great idea while others don't. Many may have gone on never thinking that others might disagree. For those that despise it as passive/aggressive... this is your chance to let those who like this idea know it's not as cool as they may think.
> 1 headphone, you can talk to me if i like.<p>How is someone supposed to know in advance whether you 'like'? isn't that the whole point of the headphones?<p>or was this supposed to say "if <i>you</i> like"?
Ok, maybe it's a troll. (What isn't?)<p>1. I don't understand. Is the wearer of 2 headphones not allowed to talk, or is he not allowed to be verbally addressed?<p>2. If all the girls are wearing headphones, how the fuck...? Am I RIGHT?!