When you spend most of your week with your work colleagues, it’s natural that little habits can trickle in that you may find irritating. Whether it’s munching on crisps, jamming on the keyboard or incessant humming, apparently all those noises that annoy you could point to you being a secret genius. Being overly sensitive to sound is now believed to be the key to the creativity of geniuses like Charles Darwin and Franz Kafka – so you could be in good company. The findings of ‘leaky’ sensory gating in the workplace – otherwise known as the ability to block outside noises out – suggest that people who struggle to master their hearing actually have minds that are able to focus on a wide range of things simultaneously. The results, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, looked at the link between people’s ability to filter out other audio, and their ability to think outside the box. Tests were carried out over 100 people, who were asked to provide solutions to scenarios, while being challenged to come up with as many original answers as possible. Those who were bad at filtering out irrelevant sounds were proven more creative in the process. So next time you’re about to be driven demented by the squeak of a door or the constant tapping of a heel, take comfort in the fact that you’re probably a genius.