271–280 of 493 posts
I'm always wary of articles like this. The feeling of things becoming mediocre strongly resonates with me, but I am aware that there could be a great many different biases at play. When I was younger, entertainment media felt magical. The complexity and depth of experiences I could get from even a second-rate story was immense. I remember staying up late at night to process the last movie I watched, or feeling that r…
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What the article describes is correct, but I don't think the words "average" or "homogeneity" or "conformity" are the right terms, as they seem to carry negative connotations here. Rather, the right word is "convergence". The point is, people like certain things aesthetically. It used to be that artists and designers were still trying to figure out what looks good, and trying all the things. But now we've tried so ma…
Art nouveau buildings from the early 20th century are almost universally considered nicer than today's buildings, and yet they're no longer made. Not because we think modern buildings are nicer, but purely for a matter of cost. I suspect the same is the case (even if to a lesser extent) in electric toothbrushes and other items of our daily life.
I can't agree with that. They're a fascinating curiosity, but they're also awfully gaudy (no pun intended). The ornamentation is extremely excessive by the standards of any common style since. Not because of cost, but just because of taste.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fwiw, the explicit advice I got from my parents about cars/houses was to never choose a unique looking one. I was told odd-colored cars are more likely to be broken into, and houses that draw attention (if placed in a neighborhood of otherwise very similar houses) are more likely to be robbed. So even if my favorite color was an easy option when choosing a car, I'd probably go monochrome as long as that's what the ma…
There's an old thought that red/yellow sports cars are more likely to get tickets because they are more noticeable. No idea if that's just lore or if data bears it out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fwiw, the explicit advice I got from my parents about cars/houses was to never choose a unique looking one. I was told odd-colored cars are more likely to be broken into, and houses that draw attention (if placed in a neighborhood of otherwise very similar houses) are more likely to be robbed. So even if my favorite color was an easy option when choosing a car, I'd probably go monochrome as long as that's what the ma…
There's an old thought that red/yellow sports cars are more likely to get tickets because they are more noticeable. No idea if that's just lore or if data bears it out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they often are designed to use a common platform. But I'm speaking specifically to aerodynamic shapes. The body of a car is relatively easy to change in the design phase even with the same underlying mechanical systems, but I believe they still converge on the same basic aerodynamic shapes.
There are actually quite a lot of possible shapes that don't degrade aerodynamics. If you take a look on the conception of any modern car, you'll see that the original design is always completely different from the one it gets after it's adapted to factory.
I’ve only worked in body panel stamping in automotive assembly as a controls engineer, so I may be taking a bit out of school here.
What the article describes is correct, but I don't think the words "average" or "homogeneity" or "conformity" are the right terms, as they seem to carry negative connotations here. Rather, the right word is "convergence". The point is, people like certain things aesthetically. It used to be that artists and designers were still trying to figure out what looks good, and trying all the things. But now we've tried so ma…
> Even if those things have converged aesthetically? But they haven't converged aesthetically any more than preferences have been absolutely overwritten , overridden , and overprinted by whatever is most easy to produce today. Your comment somewhat assumes that where we are is the ultimate endpoint of some long process, when in reality fads come and go. Tastes change. What is out there now is no more inevitable than…
You probably meant to write "du jour" :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if they had to ultra-optimize the aerodynamics so all the cars look like the same bar of soap (they don't have to), they could still at least paint the damn soap a different color. But, no. All you see coming out of the factory are white, silver, gray, black, the occasional red and the occasional blue. What's driving this? That's what the article is about. Is it actually pull from customers, or is it push from t…
I'm a digital nomad. I've lived in a lot of Airbnbs, and I love the Airbnb look. You know why? Because when landlords are trying to get creative, the result is usually horrible. Getting creative, if you're not a specialist in the field, would yield horrible results 95% of the time. Which is okay if you're doing it as a hobby, of course. But as a customer, I really don't want to be subjected to this. And Airbnbs where…
The Most Wanted Music is a milquetoast 90's pop ballad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jId-qaEwuvI&ab_channel=DaveS...
The Most Unwanted Music is nothing short of an avant-garde masterpiece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDh4o0rOvr0&ab_channel=DaveS...
What the article describes is correct, but I don't think the words "average" or "homogeneity" or "conformity" are the right terms, as they seem to carry negative connotations here. Rather, the right word is "convergence". The point is, people like certain things aesthetically. It used to be that artists and designers were still trying to figure out what looks good, and trying all the things. But now we've tried so ma…