I find Gemini Deep Think to be unbelievably underrated. In my testing, it consistently comes out far ahead of any other model or harness (for system architecture debugging, coming up with excellent YouTube title and hook ideas, etc). You can through a ton of context at it, and Deep Think's attention to detail is excellent.
My only exceptions being Sonnet 4.5 / Codex for code implementation, and Deep Research for anything requiring a ton of web searches.
You're generally right (in my experience) regarding ANC but I've found that Sony's WH-1000XM3 over-ear headphones do an excellent job with higher frequencies and "one off" sounds. I'm also a big fan of Mubert, an iOS app that generates non-distracting instrumental sound tracks.
What's worked really well for me is keeping my phone in a drawer close to my desk, with all notifications turned off except calls from my contacts. I also have an Apple Watch which only notifies me if someone is calling.
I am noticeably more focused / less anxious with my phone put away. Meditation (Headspace app) helps a lot too when my mind feels "noisy".
Brennon Dunn has a lot of great free blog content and an excellent podcast about all things freelancing / software consulting. Would highly recommend as his content has helped me a lot over the past year, mainly regarding the marketing/selling, billing and dealing with clients sides of things: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com
I have followed the same idea regarding radio waves. Would it be possible to travel far enough out to receive radio or TV broadcasts from WWII? Presumably all that information in the form of waves is still out there (assuming it hasn't been too distorted by inference, or far too small of an amplitude).
My only exceptions being Sonnet 4.5 / Codex for code implementation, and Deep Research for anything requiring a ton of web searches.