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The day I realized my 'home office' was a public bathroom in Medellin
Honestly, I was on a video call with a client for about 15 minutes before it hit me. I was in a fancy mall, thought I'd found a quiet corner with a bench, and just set up my laptop. Ngl, I was explaining a project timeline when a guy walked past me with a mop and bucket. Tbh, the final clue was the automatic air freshener that went off every 9 minutes right above my head. I'd been so focused on finding a spot with good wifi that I didn't look up from my screen. Has anyone else had a work call go totally sideways because you picked a terrible spot without realizing?
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the_parker1mo ago
Tuned it out as background noise" is so real, I read somewhere our brains just filter out stuff when we're focused.
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gavinlopez1mo ago
Oh man that's rough. I once took a call from what I thought was a quiet hallway in a library. Turns out it was right outside the toddler story time room. My client got a full ten minutes of "The Wheels on the Bus" complete with screaming kids before I figured it out. I was so deep in my notes I just tuned it out as background noise. The client was cool about it but I was so embarrassed. You just get locked in on the work sometimes.
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The thing nobody mentions is how dangerous that focus can be in the wrong situation. Like, what if that background noise was a smoke alarm or someone yelling for help? We train ourselves to ignore stuff so hard that we might miss something important. It's one thing when it's Wheels on the Bus, but it makes you wonder what else gets filtered out. Do you ever worry about that line between being focused and being totally unaware of your surroundings?
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