I’m Thinking. Please. Be Quiet.
It's so true.  I can do routine work with noise, but not the kind that requires insight.The sad thing is that noise is yet another example of the phenomenon of "the tragedy of the commons."  Which means things tend to get noisier and noisier.  In fact, what has surprised me most about living in Palo Alto is how noisy it is.  You'd think living in the suburbs would at least be quiet.  It is on weekends.  But the problem with this suburb is that people are too rich: they all have their gardens maintained by gardening services, who use among other things gas-powered leaf blowers and hedge trimmers.The leaf blowers in particular are unbelievably loud.  You can hear a gas-powered leaf blower 3 blocks away.  Which means during the day you can almost always hear one.  (The city of Palo Alto has outlawed gas powered leaf blowers, but the gardening services all pretend not to know.)