 |
| If you can read Romanian, check out http://where-the-strength-lies.blogspot.com, from where I snagged this decadent picture. If you can't read Romanian, have Google Translate read it for you. |
"I swear they put crack in it!"
Was there ever a more frequently uttered statement than that as the Starbucks Virus pervaded throughout the continent over the last decade? Probably not. Did Starbucks really put crack cocaine in its coffee? Probably not. (Though, I wouldn't put it past Big Business... I mean, Coca-Cola thought it was a good idea, only eliminating trace amounts of cocaine from its secret recipe in 1929. True, by 1904 it was only 1/400 of a grain of cocaine per ounce of pop... I digress...) But maybe Starbucks is putting it in the airwaves; maybe that's why people go there so often. An abstract thought? Indeed. But, abstractions are the brain children of creativity. And a new product harnesses the findings of a University of Illinois study linking moderate noise levels to efficient creativity; moderate noise levels such as the those environing you in a popular coffee shop, per se.
The Vwoosh of a Frappacino Being Born
Created almost by accident, the free Website Coffitivity brings the stimuli of coffee-shop sounds to the cubicle-ly confined. Like many accidents, its creation is for the better.
One of the site's founders, Ace Collander, was collaborating on a startup when he and his coworkers found they were more productive in coffee shops than in the dull confines of their office. The startup's boss apparently denied a request from one of Collander's coworkers to be excused from the office to work from a coffee shop. (Seriously... what kind of boss shoots down a request like that? Not like it's the corporate equivalent to asking your teacher if you can play hooky.) What ensued was an effort to bring the audio-ambiance of a coffee shop to the workplace. Thus, stimulating creativity. (That being said, I haven't been able to find out if the startup has been successful; Intuition tells me no, since Collander et al. seem more focused on developing Coffitivity into a successful app and company of its own.)
Coffee Shop Paradox
The study indicates that moderate noise levels, those around 70 decibels (dB) present the perfect distraction to derail your thought process just enough to get those creative juices going. That is, distraction is essential for abstract thought, which is essential for creativity. While the study revolves around the notion that "creativity is ubiquitous in the realm of consumption," the outcome was less consumer-driven:
Specifically, we show that a moderate (vs. low) level of ambient noise induces processing disfluency, which leads to abstract cognition and consequently enhances creativity. A high level of noise, however, impairs creativity by reducing the extent of information processing... In other words, while a moderate level of noise produces just enough distraction to induce disfluency, leading to higher creativity, a very high level of noise induces too much distraction so as to actually reduce the amount of processing, leading to lower creativity.Which means what? It means that low-level noise (around 50dB) is great for concentration: your mind isn't free to frolic in fields of blooming creativeness; and high-noise levels (~85dB and up) are just distracting and tend to piss people off.
This doesn't mean you'll work better in a coffee shop; tasks needing high levels of concentration will be inhibited by ambient distraction. Tasks like, proofreading, detailed writing, math (for some people), or other focus-heavy endeavors. On top of sounds, scientists link colors to behavior and productivity, as well. Blue, like moderate background noise, supposedly helps increase creativity; while red benifits concentration. I can buy that: the wall behind my computer/work desk is a very red red; when either my girlfriend or I are working at it, we get stuff done! Then again, other studies suggest the opposite to be true.
The Future of Efficient
Every seminal advancement can lead to a plethora of outcomes. So what if this scientific evidence starts to take hold, the news media gets its grubby little hands on the idea, perversely over exaggerates it, causing social medias to blow up with did-you-knows? It would spark a new generation of avante-garde psychiatrists, prescribing patients new-wave playlists instead of Prozac for their intellectual ailments. Soon we'd find ourselves in a society built on totally artificial environmental settings, each one designed entirely for specific tasks.
In this planed social setting, the walls, chairs, desks, and water machines of each company's creative department are all hued in variant shades of lofty blue, while superimposed chatter, palaver, and steamy cappuccino vwoosh of a popular coffee shop permeate at just the right decibel throughout the department. At the exact same time, the firm's team of copywriters and editors plug into a red-tint office space wherein all sound is vacuumed out by a powerful appliance designed solely to deafen the sound of coworkers' chattering keyboards.
Middle school teachers monitor classroom noise levels during free time, thus ensuring that free time is productive time.
Inevitably, automobile manufacturers slowly shift focus from Low-Carbon Emissions to Optimum Sound Emissions, after raised medical concerns started by a Scandinavian study linking heart attacks to urban traffic noise. In conjunction, radio stations focus on playing audio-ergonomic music to increase drivers' focus, ironically diminishing the popularity of Pop music.
And, on a sunny day at Berkeley, a Social Economics professor accompanies his friend, a Psychology proff., to her final class of the semester. On the way, he confides his worry concerning a recurring dream he has: a world of clutter, chaos, and debilitating noise; distractions are as numerous as people, he tells her, and attention spans are deleteriously short, creative stimulation the product of endeavor, not environment.
"It's just a dream," she soothes. "Research shows no connection to real life -- they mean nothing." The professor is comforted until a hippy-looking student stretched out on the lawn before the Philosophy department tells him it wasn't a dream.
"It was a memory."
In this planed social setting, the walls, chairs, desks, and water machines of each company's creative department are all hued in variant shades of lofty blue, while superimposed chatter, palaver, and steamy cappuccino vwoosh of a popular coffee shop permeate at just the right decibel throughout the department. At the exact same time, the firm's team of copywriters and editors plug into a red-tint office space wherein all sound is vacuumed out by a powerful appliance designed solely to deafen the sound of coworkers' chattering keyboards.
Middle school teachers monitor classroom noise levels during free time, thus ensuring that free time is productive time.
Inevitably, automobile manufacturers slowly shift focus from Low-Carbon Emissions to Optimum Sound Emissions, after raised medical concerns started by a Scandinavian study linking heart attacks to urban traffic noise. In conjunction, radio stations focus on playing audio-ergonomic music to increase drivers' focus, ironically diminishing the popularity of Pop music.
And, on a sunny day at Berkeley, a Social Economics professor accompanies his friend, a Psychology proff., to her final class of the semester. On the way, he confides his worry concerning a recurring dream he has: a world of clutter, chaos, and debilitating noise; distractions are as numerous as people, he tells her, and attention spans are deleteriously short, creative stimulation the product of endeavor, not environment.
"It's just a dream," she soothes. "Research shows no connection to real life -- they mean nothing." The professor is comforted until a hippy-looking student stretched out on the lawn before the Philosophy department tells him it wasn't a dream.
"It was a memory."
 |
| A special hint from me: Try Coffitivity on for at least two minutes before you knock it; after five, you won't even remember it's on. Click here to go straight to the website. |
BooYah!
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/
Now I'm Lawsuit Proof!
No comments:
Post a Comment