The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross "I got your music of humanity right here, Pal!" Seriously though, you know in a past life this guy was a moral scold decrying people riding the trolley with their noses buried in the newspaper.

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@cstross it's like a r/LinkedInLunatics post got lost and turned into a Guardian article
He sounds like a riot.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross Can we also call out that this guy starts with a hypothetical situation where he's shouting at a complete stranger? Like far aside from all the other reasons I stick headphones in, it's so that I don't have to talk to weirdos who seem to think they're entitled to my time for free.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
Just to add, I am sure I am not the only woman who sometimes wears earphones, neither noise-cancelling nor playing audio.
Purely in order to pretend not to hear what dickheads say to me.
Even though I actually can
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross yeah I hate these people, what we put in our own ears is our business and as you say, there's often so much noise - why not drown it out if it helps/you want?? They need to get over themselves.
Edit, the only time I'll grant is when you're cycling/otherwise need to pay attention to what's going on. Don't be dangerous about it.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross I wear reusable earplugs instead because they don't give me the weird pressure feeling that noise cancelling headphones do, and don't depend on batteries. -
He sounds like a riot.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross This guy sounds like the signs in the most insufferable cafes advising you that laptops and phones are banned and you should strike up a deep, meaningful conversation with the stranger next to you, like people did back in the 90s
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross no Stern I've heard enough of your drivel already for a lifetime, I'm not interested in any more.
Kind of asshat that will hold a door for you and then try to scold you for not thanking him. Whoops you can't hear it because you're wearing headphones, thankfully.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross quite aside from all the other entirely good reasons people mention - protecting your ears from noisy cities, dissuading random strangers from pestering you, etc - dog walks are when I listen to podcasts.
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@cstross when did the Guardian start printing LinkedIn style management slop.
The same day Adrian Chiles got a column. Its drivel all the way down
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@cstross @grayabbott The dude (Stephan Stern) completely misses the point. The ear buds are the symptom, not the problem.
Get rid of open-plan offices, allow work from home when possible, and impose strict noise and emissions limits on vehicles - including stereo systems. More public transportation/less traffic. More parks.
*edit to add author name*
@bubbajet @cstross @grayabbott The absolute worst open plan office I ever worked in was so loud with everyone's Teams meetings going on that I had a splitting headache half way through the day, and I never, ever went back for any more in person work - especially since the rest of my team were down in Somerset and I was in Worcestershire. Noise-cancelling headphones would have at least made it semi-bearable, if not at all enjoyable.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross Fucking idiot as well as pompous prescriptive ass. Earbuds are frequently used as essentially lower-cost BT hearing aids. The amount of control they give you over your sonic environment is incredible, from amplifying speech to adding a little white noise to (counterintuitively) cut tinnitus, to cranking tunes to drown out some knob busily dying on a hill of his own bullshit.
[edit: "hearing" aids]
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross I'll admit the title was enough and I didn't read the article. The Guardian is too fond of opinion pieces in my, ah, opinion. There are so many good reasons to wear earphones, at least one at least some of the time.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross He's wrong about it being a new problem, though.
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The street I live on is treeless and lined on both sides with 4-story stone buildings, and buses, ambulances, cars, and trucks use it nose-to-tail. Ambient noise can hit 90dB at pavement level: noise-cancelling earbuds are a survival tool.
Not to mention that folks on the spectrum are prone to noise pollution induced meltdowns.
TLDR: this guy is a pompous prescriptive ass who needs to be fucked in one ear with bagpipes and in the other with a road drill.
@cstross Weird hill to die on, but if he dies at least he'll stop bothering other people.
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@cstross This guy sounds like the signs in the most insufferable cafes advising you that laptops and phones are banned and you should strike up a deep, meaningful conversation with the stranger next to you, like people did back in the 90s
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@cstross @grayabbott The dude (Stephan Stern) completely misses the point. The ear buds are the symptom, not the problem.
Get rid of open-plan offices, allow work from home when possible, and impose strict noise and emissions limits on vehicles - including stereo systems. More public transportation/less traffic. More parks.
*edit to add author name*
@bubbajet @cstross @grayabbott Open plan offices are cognitive kryptonite for me I'm afraid. During my residency at icsi.berkeley.edu I had a corner office all to myself.
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He sounds like a riot.
@helvick @davey_cakes @cstross I just KNEW this guy had to be a #businessidiot probably with a *growth mindset* https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
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@lilithfromseattle Thank you for calling me kinda old-ish (by implication)!