Modern decor may be straining people's brains • Hacker News Board

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#171

Post by Exoristos » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

dpark wrote: post #138

antonymoose wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that’s quite a bit of baggage to unpack. In regards to “miscegenation” we have Galatians which largely renders that point moot, highlighting everyone’s love of cherry-picking scripture. In regards to homosexuality, you have Leviticus, I assume you’re referencing. Given the widespread practice of man-boy relations as famously highlighted by the Spartans and of course recent special military operations in Afghani…

> Given the widespread practice of man-boy … I have an incredibly hard time believing this piece of scripture is at all misinterpreted. I’m struggling with this statement. Are you saying that Leviticus is actually only anti-pedophile and not anti-gay (and so all these conservative Christian preachers are willfully misrepresenting it), or are you continuing the long tradition of falsely linking homosexuality with pedo…

You seem to be conflating Abrahamic religions.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#172

Post by badlibrarian » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

"The optic cortex is the biggest area of the brain by far. When everything is saturated in fluorescent light, as it is in small studios many times, the fluorescent light is going on and off at 60 times a second, or ideally at 120, but more roughly 60 and it’s shutting off your brain 60 times a second. The brain is kind of a fluid thing and everything is coupled with everything else, and when this happens – no matter where you take the EEG – if the subject is looking at fluorescent light, you see 60 cycles from the fluorescent light."

https://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/don-buchla-pass...

I suppose it's worth double checking if the 60 Hz was just leaking into the measurement rig. Or autism, for that matter. But Don was great and I've always loved this interview, so I'm sharing.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#173

Post by ajsnigrutin » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:18 PM UTC

michaelchisari wrote: post #5

If you've ever been in an home owned for generations, filled with books and knickknacks and heirlooms and family photos, despite the clutter it all feels comforting in a way that modern decor doesn't. The article doesn't touch much on why modern decor emerged as it did. It's a market response where everyone needs to (or feels the need to) pick up and move at a moment's notice. Companies are either expanding or like t…

A lot of the new designs are actually practical.... be it striped carpets or patterned bus seats, they're designed to hide stains and wear. If eg. bus seats were made from white fabric, no one would want to sit in them after a month or two of use, same for eg. carpets in places with many people.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#174

Post by appreciatorBus » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:30 PM UTC

tayo42 wrote: post #148

analog31 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and today, it's like if you can buy a house at all. Probably what makes the house less cluttered is that the elite class can afford to throw things away.

Keeping your house clean and neat is elite? I guess I'm elite lol finally.now what do I do about those bills?

TBF most ppl reading/posting on HN are part of the elite.

Elite doesn't imply "more money than I know what to do with" it simply means being closer to the upper end the of income and/or wealth distribution, or failing that, being part of some cultural generation that gives you more influence than the average bear, i.e. journalist, university prof etc. The cutoff for being in the 20% of household income in the US is $175K. From what I understand that's one entry level FAANG income.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#175

Post by ejflick » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:33 PM UTC

nilirl wrote: post #21

This website is straining my brain. Ads that bounce around? Sheesh.

I can’t decide if it’s obnoxious or beautiful irony that drives home the idea of the article.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#176

Post by kulahan » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:34 PM UTC

bluebarbet wrote: post #165

sirwitti wrote: post #150

One aspect that is often overlooked is a room acoustics - especially reverb time. Have you ever felt cosy in a large church? Or, if you have ever been to a wedding and wondered why everybody started talking louder and louder and it's hard to understand, a room with too large reverb time is a very probable causes. This is very draining mentally. The same goes for living spaces, especially since newer homes tend to use…

Possibly the first convincing argument I have ever heard in favor of the materialistic accumulative American lifestyle.

You don't need to live a consumerist lifestyle to have a home that's properly outfitted (curtains), comfy (rugs, chairs), and quiet (walls/divisions).

Also for a fun large-scale argument: we're relatively sheltered from global depressions. All we really have to do is convince Americans to keep spending money and it kinda works out, because the whole economy is structured around that anyways.

That's also why the economy is in the dumper right now (not counting tech companies), and why the consumer confidence index is so important to our various economists.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#177

Post by kulahan » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:38 PM UTC

meindnoch wrote: post #115

VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty sure they mean perceptible complexity at the level of the human eye. Of course, everything has quarks and leptons in infinitely complex patterning.

>I’m pretty sure they mean perceptible complexity at the level of the human eye That's precisely what they're wrong about. Take a look at tree branches. A field of grass. A stone cliff. Now take a look at human-made decor: drywall, plastic, laminated boards. Which one has more visual detail?

Our brains evolved in the former environment, and is very good at filtering it out. I've got pretty extreme ADHD, and if I'm in a room and something on the wall is flittering about, I absolutely must look at it. If I'm in a field and a tree is full of leaves billowing in the wind, it's a nice background thing. I guess my monkey brain is too busy looking for tiger faces to be distracted by flickering leaves, flowing grass, and flying bugs for more than a half second.

I dunno if I agree with their arguments in the paper (there seem to be some pretty big questions unanswered yet, which the authors acknowledge), but there's definitely something to the idea that natural environments aren't as stressful for us, even if they're objectively "busier".

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#178

Post by robocat » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #141

Timwi wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how to feel about your implication that unmarried people are neither grown up nor adults.

I'm not religious but just looking around it's pretty obvious that many unmarried adults act quite immature (delayed adolescence). Which way the causality runs is harder to determine, but when you're responsible for and accountable to a spouse that forces you to grow up a bit.

> accountable to a spouse that forces you to grow up a bit

Having children forces you, and ~10% of married people don't have kids. In New Zealand, about 50% of kids are born to the unmarried.

As you say, correlation and causation are hard to pick given the selection biases of who chooses to be married, and who your peer group is if you are married.

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#179

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:55 PM UTC

michaelchisari wrote: post #5

If you've ever been in an home owned for generations, filled with books and knickknacks and heirlooms and family photos, despite the clutter it all feels comforting in a way that modern decor doesn't. The article doesn't touch much on why modern decor emerged as it did. It's a market response where everyone needs to (or feels the need to) pick up and move at a moment's notice. Companies are either expanding or like t…

I see strange market forces where companies need to be trendy, so they absorb what's in the air, and then people kinda have no choice but to buy it. Nobody really wanted to but it materializes.

Around me every house now has tall anthracite fully closed fences. It's gloomy as hell, streets went from cute garden with wood fences to lock-down mode in a few years. It's all the same model, all the same vibe..

Re: Modern decor may be straining people's brains

#180

Post by xandrius » Sat, Jul 11, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

dinkblam wrote: post #46

flickering lights are not "modern decor" but a broken (and possibly dangerous) appliance

You're confusing what they mean: it's not the flickering that you can easily notice, it's the flickering of lights "fps".

To see those, you need a digital camera (e.g. your phone)