iPods at work

mark_melb

Discuss.

simon seasons

Hear, hear.

peter

<p>I don't like 'em. You are (always) learning through your ears from the office around you. Osmosis. And they'll make you deaf.</p>
<p>Stereos are another thing. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't (depends on whether I like the music coming out of them - not a Def Leppard fan here).</p>

simon seasons

At school, being a mature ager, most of the younger ones have ipods and they are irritating for the reason that you have to shout at them to attract attention when you want to discuss some facet of a project we may be working on. They whip 'em out of their ears quick enough but my concern is that while they are immersed in walls of sound, their brains arn't actually on the job at hand.
To my mind I can't see how you can bring to bear the intellect required for a half decent attempt at a design and brief analysis if your listening to something entirely foriegn to the subject. If they were listening to Frank Ghery or Engineers reports or something similar it might make sense, but frankly a lot of the designs that get produced look nothing like what was asked for in the brief, AND, now I know why.
They are great if your peeling 20kg of potatoes and you know exactly what you're doing, but in school and in practise, they are not just socially rude or osmotically impervious, they are downright counter productive to good design.

mark_melb

In the workplace they have no place. They are a fashion accessory, rude and, in a team situation, as dangerous as listening to while participating in a bunch ride.

miles

cmon you old buggers....next you'll be wistfully discussing the good old days of clutch pencils and pounce

simon seasons

Ah! an affecianado!
Please Miles, instead of berating us for making sensitivity to our senses, a job prerequisite, how about explaining to us old buggers the virtues of an Ipod.

And I happen to still use two staedler clutch pencils, one hard and one not so hard and a lovely Mutoh drawing machine of exquisite 1970's Japanese industrial design mounted on an A1 Arnal Neolt, which for your information is an exquisite piece of 1970's Italian industrial design. They are a damn sight more faithful to me than that bloody microsoft.
I have about 2 leads left for each clutch pencil. Any one know where I can find some more?

miles

gentlemen
i grew up in an office where music was essential and after 5pm you got to put your own on! the heirachy of the office was determined by proximity to the stereo and the studio nature of the environment created a great place for ideas and occasionally work (now who is wistful i hear you cry!) the ipod in the ears has stifled this ability to engage with a range of tunes during the course of the day but the ipod in the stereo allows a complexity of musical offerings never before possible. music=essential, ipod=contemporary version of 'mixup' cassettes, enagaging with young minds in the office through music=useful, throwing ball of used masking tape at their head=not.

simon seasons

Your crucial agreeance with us, I think Miles, is the bit where you specify that the Ipod is connected to the communal listening device which you contrast with the "Ipod in the ears (that) has stifled this ability to engage".
Having music playing is not unconducive to inspiration, though I personally enjoy the flights of fancy that my mind takes without music and I used to think so hard that even music playing tends to disappear when my mind is on fire.

It is the 'plugged in' aspect of aurally seperating oneself from colleagues that I think you and 'us' are in agreeance on. It is anti social and design destructive to seperate so thouroughly from 'enviroment'.

I forgot to mention in my last post, my beloved dark grey 'Planet' lamp which lurks at the top of my Arnal drawingboard.