I think music is the critical part for my efficiency..

@irene nope. I don't focus on music .. it's like noise cancellation and it give me power to ignore others and when I write code it also provide rhythm.

I've done testing while playing real-time multiplayer games at a high skill level, and playing with music makes me play worse.

It also distracts while coding, but that's not as time-critical as real time high skill level games, so you don't notice it. You don't have much to compare performance to, while coding, with and without music.

It depends. Some people can focus with music. Some people cannot focus with music.

Know what you like and enjoy. Know your preference. As long as you are productive, go for it :)

@bitjedi Same here. Hearing the folks around me is one of the biggest downsides of so called ‚open space‘.