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I feel your frustration.
At my company's previous offices I had my very own corner office. Even though the walls were dry-walling, I could close the door and focus on my work. Those were THE MOST PRODUCTIVE days I ever gave to my company.
Since then we built our own office building and now have a modern-looking semi-open-plan office setup with us (the developers) and the support staff on the two sides.
Unfortunately, there is ONE SINGLE (attention seeking) support person that is simply not capable of doing ANYTHING discreetly. Every thing he says, he practically screams. He loves reading emailed or online jokes out loud, laughing so loud afterwards that he doesn't even realize he's laughing alone.
And the reason I really feel your frustration, is that I also seem to be alone. I also seem to be the only one yearning for silence, or at the very least just some plain decency and professionalism.
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I find that coming into work with a half-empty bottle of tequila in one hand, and a pump-action shotgun in the other, works wonders in resolving co-worker relations issues. 
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I think my brain is wired similarly. And, I agree with the headphones, but I need white noise or something more consistent than most music. I purchased a cd with a variety of water sounds and found one that's perfect as it has basically no quiet periods. I tune to the lowest possible level until the environment get's noisy, then increase as needed.
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Get yourself some noise canceling headphones and an MP3 player.
Even the cheap ones work (no need to go to Bose) with music.
With my Logitech ($50) cheapies, I'm able to mow the lawn and hear music. Much better than cranking the volume to nerve damage levels.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
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It is obvious to me that you are a total failure as a nerd.
#1: As a nerd you should be the most annoying person in the office. I suggest that you go on the offensive. You could use a subtle approach, like picking your nose constantly, to get sound (and sight) reducing walls built. That way you aren't the one suggesting the expenditures to the bossman. If you want your own office with a door I'd suggest egg protien three times a day. It's a good way to gas your way into your own office with a door and separate air handling system.
#2: As a nerd you should have the ability to control the make up of your office. If movies are to be believed it is only a matter of adjusting payroll files or the generation of a few creative emails and you've got all your noisy co-workers looking for a new job. Alternatively you could simply write software that eliminates a noisy co-workers job - I used that technique once to get rid of a guy who was a knock-knock joke afficinado. I hear he's a big hit down at McDonald's.
The only way to win is to make your problem someone else's problem.
Report back here when you've won.
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My cube is right outside the main conference room, where all the loud sales meetings, production training and pot lucks. And I can't leave out the noisy hallway follow up meeting just outside the door right after the main meeting.
I tried putting up "quiet, people working" signs, the no cell phone sign, all of that. I would do the kick the door stop up and noisily close the door, None of it works. Seems that social boors can't or won't read, can't be bothered. One of the annoyed conference room users sent me this link when I complained, http://www.sarcasma.net/sarcasma_002.htm[^]
I ended up using headphones like a lot of the posters here. I prefer the circumaural closed back type. Sometimes I don't even play music, just shut out the noise.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Proper noise-cancelling headphones (i.e. the big "cans") would lessen the impact of their cacophony and perhaps help to passively signal to others how much of a pain in the arse it is. People will come to ask you questions and have to ask you to remove the headphones first, and you'll casually say "oh yeah sorry, it's just for the noise - what's up?", rather than you going to them and asking why the noise doesn't bother them so much.
I find listening to music a bit distracting because I like music too much, and involuntarily start paying attention to it. Sometimes I listen to binaural beats which are less distracting (if you don't turn the volume up too far) and also help to dampen the external noise another bit.
If nothing else works, I myself might consider quitting unless it was a superb job (but certainly, hating most days at work would not be superb). You don't need to settle for a lousy environment. 
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Have you considered just bringing it to their attention that they are really loud?
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I get two reasons why we have moved to an open office environment and I think both of them are ridiculous.
1. For better collaboration. When I want to collaborate with a colleague I can e-mail, phone, IM, walk over there. Why would I need to sit in an environment where everyone can see what I am doing all the time and I am distracted by people, talking, walking by, snoring, whatever. I have been able to collaborate with people on the other side of the continent quite well.
2. To save money. That may be true in Tokyo or New York, but in most places, commercial real estates costs about $1-$2/sq. ft. per month. So, to obtain the additional space to make real cubicles with walls (6 ft high) it would only cost about 20 dollars a month. For offices it may cost 50 - 60 dollars more per month. Is my productivity so low that increasing it 10% isn't worth 1% of what I earn?
What we need is a undercover boss to come and sit in these open offices and try to get some work done. Maybe then we could get back to the smart days where every developer was valued enough to get an office.
SS => Qualified in Submarines
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm". Winston Churchill
"Real programmers can write FORTRAN in any language". Unknown
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megaadam wrote: how do I make these people understand?
1. bring getthoblaster
2. play this
3. ???
4. profit (evil laugh)
But seriously, get good headphones and tune in to chronixradio.com or plough through some metal blogs for mp3s and start listening to
Arch Enemy, Rammstein, Meshuggah, Hypocrisy, Cannibal Corpse, God Dethroned, Dimmu Borgir, Lacuna Coil, Kataklysm, Static-X, Disarmonia Mundi, Napalm Death, Bloodbath, Vital Remains, Nightwish, Allegaeon, Neuraxis, Soulfly.
All killers, no fillers.  \m/
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Hi megaadam
In my experience I have found that the companies who don`t provides developers with quiet working conditions, to be the firms that you generally don`t want to work for. It commonly means that the people who manage you don't view you as important enough. They want you to produce code, but they are not willing to provide you with the means to do it. Unfortunately we do seem to be in a profession that most businesses want, but don’t want to pay for.
If you are faced with deadlines and managers who complain about your development speed (or that of your team), then I would seriously consider leaving as soon as possible. There are companies out there that will understand that you need quiet working conditions in order to concentrate.
If they know that the noise slows you down but they do appreciate your work and are very chilled when it comes to deadlines, then seeking other employment might be less of a concern. If it’s the latter then you can hopefully steadily swing things your way by suggesting working from home or maybe setting up a small office somewhere else. Just be sure to explain to your employers that your level of output is seriously hindered by the chattering crowd. If however I where you, I would start patiently looking for better places to work.
Try a brown-, pink or white - noise media file played through your headphones for the moment. It worked for me way back when I was faced with a similar problem.
Keep it tight
Christiaan Laubscher
modified on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 1:32 PM
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Excellent points Christiaan, and in general I do agree with you. However, my workplace is quite special, and you might find it interesting.
We are just four in my company, as I said, sharing the space with twenty other people (same management). The other two programmers, accept the fact that the noise hinders them a bit, but they appreciate (and prefer) such a social environment to "sitting in a noiseless bunker". One of them is the founder who sold out and stayed on, and he did just that for years. And also, they are clearly much less hindered than me.
And management is not at all "shut up and give us code", absolutely not! On the contrary, they are happy entrepreneurs who are a bit inexperienced with technically advanced R&D. They are not at all Dilbert-style malign. And they are extremely flexible regarding working hours and generous regarding private needs. I am 40++ and I have never seen kinder bosses. But our company simply is too small to make large adjustments for the four of us, especially as the three other guys will not fight for it!
So working from home is a way out, but that has drawbacks as well. Impaired communication with the other engineers, and boring in the long run. But I think I could force them to give me two days a week...
Cheers,
Adam
.....................
Life is too shor
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Hi megaadam
I am glad that you have pleasant co-workers and decent employers. Those are definite advantages to have in a company. I would also consider staying based on those facts.
Maybe try putting up a cubicle wall at your desk facing towards the main direction from where the noise coming. Then try the white noise .mp3 files as suggested.
Hope it gets better
Christiaan Laubscher
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I am also a person who can be distracted by environmental noise.
You can get noise-cancelling headphones (Philips makes a set that are way cheaper than the Bose noise cancelling 'phones you see in magazine ads). These give you the choice either to play music or to just have quiet.
Beyond that, take note that you get paid the same wage whether your boss cares about your ability to work effectively or not. If you complained and he wouldn't do anything about it, then he clearly doesn't mind if your output is diminished.
Maybe you are one of those people who takes pride in their work and is uncomfortable when they cannot do their best. If your work environment is noisy and distracting, then you are probably working at a company that doesn't respect, value or compensate that kind of person. There are a lot of shops that don't seem to care much about your output. You have a choice whether to work for such people or not.
If there are other signs that the company doesn't care (inattentive management, sloppy or nonexistent development process, poor delivered quality, deadlines that are unreasonable and/or that constantly slip), then it's time to move on.
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Be glad that it's "unrelated" chatter. It's worse when sales or service is describing features or giving help in an app that you wrote and you keep thinking "noooooooooo! that isn't how it is supposed to be used"
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enigma and anything like gregorian chants swallows me into my own divine code, and keeps the world out 
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Honestly, 8 hours of Enigma and other Grego-Electro a week would drive me nuts as well! In fact even my favourite rock music would be pretty bad. If forced to listen to it I would very quickly start to hate my own favourites.
.....................
Life is too shor
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If you ever find a new place to work chances are there's going to be loud people. i say learn to cope with it on your own, bitching about it would just make you "the geek with an attitude".
personally, i listen to electro music get all hyped up and in the zone, but fortunately the office right now is made up of only IT people so no loudness whatsoever. Have sat with HR staff, it kind of amazed me how they get anything done, headphones still work like a charm.
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I sometimes use head phones with a noise loop. (I think it is "pink" noise). A waterfall sound track might help.
I only use music if I am performing brain-dead style data entry.
I read a study once that showed that listening to music while performing creative work causes the work to suffer.
I think an ex-coworker proved this study. He generated 10x more code than he needed to in many situations instead of finding a better solution. I know he could provide better code than that since some of his stuff was excellent.
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Do we have a pool going yet on whether he makes it tonight?
It's past my bedtime, and I've been waiting for a post that tells me, "I'm safely aboard, and they're telling us that we have to shut off our devices now..." to let me know that he's safe and in the air... headed home, at last. Lacking that, I'm in for a fiver that he makes it - yeah, I'm an optimist and don't see any good reason to change.
Happy trails, Christian, and I look forward to your joyful posts upon returning to your homeland! 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Roger Wright wrote: "I'm safely aboard, and they're telling us that we have to shut off our devices now..."
Nah...he will never say anything like this. He will find something that sucks about a safe journey and post that. 
if(CG && isNoSuckage)
{
Console.Writeline("World is finally a better place to live.");
}
Why does compiler say "Unreachable code detected at line 2"?
In SQL, never have stored procedure names beginning with "SP_".
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I don't doubt he will make it, but will he be on time should be the bet, and I'll put 5 on it landing in Singapore right on time, getting out of Singapore seems to be the problem!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Roger Wright wrote: Christian, I look forward to your joyful posts
I look forward with an open mouth for Roast duck to drop into it. And oh, I'm under a rock. In the moon. Of Uranus.
There are some really weird people on this planet - MIM.
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Sceptic!
Something must go right in his life someday.
Ok, so maybe that is a little optimistic.
Something must go not quite terribly in his life someday.
Oh, and have you seen that three Quantas A380 engines have oil leaks? Maybe he won't get home as quick as he thought...
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Something must go not quite terribly in his life someday.
Would you like cheese with that?
There are some really weird people on this planet - MIM.
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