Last year, The Harvard Business Review published an article titled “Why You Can Focus in a Coffee Shop but Not in Your Open Space”. One of the arguments proposed by the author, David Burkus, is that it’s not necessarily the sound itself in a workplace environment that distracts us, but rather the person that’s making it.
In fact, research quoted by Burkus in his article found that “some level of office banter in the background might actually benefit our ability to do creative tasks, provided we don’t get drawn into the conversation. Instead of total silence, the ideal work environment for creative work has a little bit of background noise.” However, because we are more likely to get drawn into conversations happening at the office, people are more likely to focus more in a noise coffee shop than in a noisy office.
The article and proposed arguments reminded me of Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit, in which he quotes at the end that “hell is other people”. The quote is often misinterpreted, with people believing that Sartre is encouraging us to become solipsists and to disconnect from the world. That’s hardly accurate.
There’s a reason coworking spaces are popular among remote and home workers; we are social creatures and we crave that social interaction. Sartre isn’t inviting people to crawl into a cave and avoid any social interaction, he’s simply asking us to be aware of how we are influenced and affected by the presence of others.