Like others have said, it's loud, but it's also that it's a constant noise that can often tend to cut through whatever you're currently trying to focus on.

Add on the tendency people have to feather the throttle (do leaf blowers have throttles?), making the noise really inconsistent and unpredictable, and it makes it difficult to keep what little focus you have.

Sometimes, when there's like 3 different leaf blowers going at once, I can barely keep my train of thought if I can't drown it out by turning my music all the way up. :\

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, there’s usually a throttle. My dad has an old electric one that plugs into an extension cord and it’s strictly on/off, but pretty much every other one I’ve used lets you adjust the speed, whether gas or electric/battery. It’s helpful because you don’t necessarily want to blast leaves at full power when you get them close to your target (like a pile of leaves that you’re adding to and don’t want to disperse), but sometimes you need that full power to move things that are a bit stuck. Plus with my battery powered blower, the higher power levels drain the battery faster and the low levels are quieter.

It’s interesting, those sounds have never really broken through on me, but I’m 41 and just got diagnosed this year. Pretty much just inattentive type, little to no hyperactivity. Any sort of conversation can pull me away though.