Just realized how the soundtrack of my cafe workdays has fundamentally changed

I mean, back when I first started coding from cafes, it was all about finding the quietest spot and blasting white noise through my headphones to drown everything out. But over the years, I've slowly come to appreciate the ambient sounds, like the clatter of cups and the low murmur of conversations around me. Idk, maybe it's just me, but I now deliberately choose tables near the espresso machine to soak in that rhythmic hiss and grind. There was this one cafe in Lisbon where the barista's playlist of vintage jazz became my unofficial focus music for an entire personal app project. It's funny how what I once saw as distractions have now woven themselves into the fabric of my creative coding sessions. I guess working remotely from these spaces has taught me to find inspiration in the chaos, turning background noise into a kind of collaborative energy that fuels my side projects.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jenny3mo ago

It's like the soundscape becomes part of the architecture of what you're building. That external chaos eventually gets internalized and starts writing the code with you.

sethadams3mo ago

The idea that chaos gets internalized and starts writing code is wild to me. It makes sense when @martinez.gray talks about Eno building a calm space, but Jenny is saying the noise itself becomes part of the program. I don't know if my brain could turn random sound into working logic.

martinez.gray3mo ago

Eno's Music for Airports coded my last project.