Let me try to answer the question seriously: I have worked in coffee shops with ambient noise which I have been able to tune out. I believe that the experiment is subtly different that what I had proposed because it is looking at a different dimension of noise. The problem with noise at work is that it gets harder to tune it out especially when some of that noise might be relevant. This means that you get more distracted than when listening to some person with a nasally voice is asking for non fat soy latte. Well, that is my hypothesis anyway. :-)
> I can filter out 10% of the noise at home, because if my wife is talking or our cats are meowing, it's almost certainly directed at me.
IMO the only advantage of working from home is that you can control all those free variables that make you distracted: E.g. Get a quiet study where you tell your wife, cat(s) etc that you cannot/will not be distracted during work hours. Doing that at work can be tried but depending on the work place, may not be kosher.
I personally prefer working in the library. I have been most productive doing that back in school and sorely miss it.
> E.g. Get a quiet study where you tell your wife, cat(s) etc that you cannot/will not be distracted during work hours.
Well, sojacques already addressed the cat point, so they only thing I have to add is that I live in Manhattan, in a very spacious place by our standards, but one that doesn't really come with a study - not unless I wanted to tear down everything in the closet, toss my wife's things into a box, and have a space the size of a desk to work in :P
Sad but true that there are workplaces (quite popular open-floorplan "collaborative" sardine-packing spaces) where concentrating on your work is unkosher.
