Who out there likes to work to music?

When you're working on your laptop, music can either help or hurt your attention.  For me, it's always felt better to have the TV in the background as music has generally interrupted my flow.

I've found an exception to that rule - The soundtrack from the movie "The Social Network", created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  You remember the movie from 2010 chronicling the rise of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.  Here's a snippet about this soundtrack, which I'm recommending you to attempt to work to in the background:

"The Social Network is a dark ambient soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for David Fincher's film of the same name. It was released on September 28, 2010. On September 17, a five-track sampler was also made available for free. The film's score bears a similar sound to the previous Reznor/Ross 2008 collaboration, Ghosts I-IV, and even features two slightly reworked tracks from Ghosts : the track "Magnetic" (reworked from "14 Ghosts II") and "A Familiar Taste" (a remixed version of "35 Ghosts IV").

Critical reception of the soundtrack has been generally favorable, with high praise and widespread acclaim across the film industry being bestowed upon it. The score won nine major awards, including the 2010 Golden Globe award for Best Original Score – Motion Picture, and the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 83rd Academy Awards."

The word "ambient" fits this soundtrack - here's the definition of ambient music:

"a style of gentle, largely electronic instrumental music with no persistent beat, used to create or enhance a mood or atmosphere."

A lot of you know Trent Reznor from a little band called Nine Inch Nails.  Creative genius.  As it turns out, there are thousands of people using this soundtrack to study to, code to and work to.  See just a few of the comments below related to how this soundtrack aids attention - one commenter says "this is what adderall sounds like" - and then see the youtube upload of the soundtrack underneath some of those comments. (email subscribers click through if you don't see the comments or the YouTube embed below)

Give it a shot next time you want to groove when knocking stuff out or writing on your laptop.