Any conversation

good videogame music is often my coding sweet spot--no lyrics, something familiar

Occasionally silence if I forget to turn on music. Otherwise, death grips and a curated EDM playlist are on rotate. It keeps me moving fast. But also Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians albums go hard for long session, distraction-free music

Often silence, for me. I could create a (narrow) bell curve of problems where I listen to music. If I'm doing light enough work then I don't tend to listen to music, probably just out of habit - but as I approach problems of a certain complexity then I do prefer music. I just find that complexity band is narrow and past it I need to turn off the music. I would like to widen my music band. My preference is usually ambient - I like Gaussian curve and Hiroshi Yoshimura

I think yes, but precisely NOT "at a philosophical level". You can have it only if you get your hands dirty and build it yourself. I think @stagasprofilefollowcreative technologist creator of textlog already proved this, just as a close example.

entropy says no

The funny thing is that in the UK, we don't really use the em dash anyway. We use the hyphen (I guess en dash?) with a space each side. So the em dash has always looked a bit odd to us... 😊

Just get and read Chicago Manual of Style, or Oxford Style Manual if you so prefer, and you’re all set to use the various dash’es (and many other things).

There’s other dashes to pick if you want to steer clear of the almighty em dash!