[HN Gopher] Color has been disappearing from the world
___________________________________________________________________
Color has been disappearing from the world
Author : beatthatflight
Score : 323 points
Date : 2022-08-22 06:53 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (tumblr.macleodsawyer.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (tumblr.macleodsawyer.com)
| zitterbewegung wrote:
| If you have a machine learning model that attempts to judge that
| color is disappearing from the world using pictures did they take
| into account that people now use cameras that change the color
| space of a photo to be more bland?
| patientplatypus wrote:
| ninefathom wrote:
| The article simply (and, one might argue, rather effectively)
| shows data; the comments here have been far more interesting.
|
| This seems to be a surprisingly polarizing (pun not intended)
| issue. Why are some people sanguine with the diminishing of
| color, yet others find it upsetting? Why is it a fashion trend to
| some, yet a crucial piece of identity to others? I don't know,
| but I'd love to find out.
|
| So here's my addition to the brew: urbanization. What if the
| trend is not entirely fashion or economy, but also a function of
| population density? I've spent my fair share of time in both
| urban and rural areas, and the urban seem to be much more
| chromatically homogeneous in terms of surface area, punctuated
| with more vivid splashes. Rural areas tend to lack the sudden
| bright splashes, but have miles upon miles of subtle variation.
| Could increasing population densities be contributing to a loss
| of color?
| Anon4Now wrote:
| I think you're onto something. I went to pick up my son at the
| Portland airport last winter. There must have been around 100
| people waiting at the baggage claims, and almost all of them
| were wearing black. The rest were wearing other dark colors. No
| light or bright colors.
|
| I thought it was weird, but as I stood there wearing my light
| blue shirt, it occurred to me that I might be the weird one.
| yvan-eht-nioj wrote:
| I remember being in Tokyo station at rush hour and seeing a sea
| of beige/pastels and white shirts, with the odd pop of bright
| colour (usually another tourist) - exactly as you mentioned,
| but in the form of a microcosm.
|
| I also remember noting that the effect of the homogeneity as
| being calming, generating serenity amidst what would otherwise
| be chaotic.
|
| Perhaps the trend towards homogenous colours are communal hive-
| mind response to 21st Century overstimulation, noise pollution
| and ever increasing urban density - a desperate grasp for less
| stimulation in a world of endless beeping, flashing and
| ringing.
| shreyshnaccount wrote:
| I don't not buy this, but seems kinda far fetched. but then
| again this explains why the trend is apparently increasing in
| speed. (but i feel like there's more photos from the later we
| go that there has to be some kind of normalisation for this
| date to actually make sense...)
| [deleted]
| ninefathom wrote:
| I had thoughts the same way myself (viz. response to
| overstimulation) but I'm not even remotely certain how to get
| hard numbers behind such a thing.
| [deleted]
| bombcar wrote:
| Once place color has been exploding is the power-tool market.
|
| Years ago almost every corded drill you could find was black or
| gray or maybe a dark red. Now each brand has their own color
| (offhand Dewalt Yellow, Milwaukee or Craftsman Red, Ryobi Nuclear
| Waste Green, etc).
|
| They're _very bright_ and there 's an argument it makes them
| easier to see on the job site, but it's also an important part of
| their branding, too, so much so that contractors will say things
| like "I hope yellow catches up with red, I really want a tool
| like that."
| swayvil wrote:
| House remodeler here.
|
| Gray everything. That's what's popular. Light gray walls, medium
| gray trim, dark gray floor.
|
| We used to joke that it's a sure sign that the residents are
| cocaine/alcohol enthusiasts (because, yes, those people do indeed
| love gray).
|
| But now it's everywhere.
|
| Makes you think.
| foobarbecue wrote:
| https://youtu.be/Dhwcc-iiNJQ
| raydev wrote:
| On the subject of cars, the effect is far more pronounced in
| Canada vs the southern US.
|
| Every time I go down south I'm struck by the sheer variety of
| year models _and_ colors. When I return to Canada and spend a few
| hours on the 401 or visit the Maritimes, most cars are white
| /silver/gray/black and they're all made in the last 10 years.
|
| The age thing I understand (salt damage), but the lack of color
| doesn't make any sense.
| BLanen wrote:
| Commodification incentivizes regression to some mean.
|
| (rental) houses are losing color because they have to design it
| in the least offensive way. Better be "acceptable" for 1000
| people than "beautiful" for 10.
|
| That mcDonalds is also a prime example. That building can be used
| for anything now. The old McDonald's building is specifically a
| McDonald's or some sort of "fun" eating establishment. If the
| McDonald's leaves the building, the "boring" one will be worth
| more/ can extract more rent.
| bombcar wrote:
| Significant numbers of commercial buildings like that simply
| get razed to the ground when the tenant leaves. It's cheaper
| for the new tenant to build the building they want than adapt
| to the older one.
|
| Which is why you only find "reused iconic buildings" in parts
| of the city that are now more run-down.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > Which is why you only find "reused iconic buildings" in
| parts of the city that are now more run-down.
|
| This isn't true at all - city centres often have protection
| for their historic iconic buildings. In somewhere like
| central London the majority of buildings are reused iconic
| buildings. You'll find McDonalds locations in Georgian town-
| houses for example.
| delecti wrote:
| Isn't your example the opposite situation? You're talking
| about an active McDonalds in a non-McDonalds structure, you
| replied to a comment talking about a non-McDonalds in a
| visibly McDonalds structure.
|
| In your example, the McDonalds had to make do with the
| existing building which they aren't allowed to change. In
| the other example, non-McDonalds have to make do with an
| un-renovated McDonalds structure which they can't _afford_
| to change. You aren 't providing a counter example, you're
| just talking about something different.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| I don't think any purpose-built McDonalds could be
| described as 'iconic' architecture?
| bombcar wrote:
| Iconic as literally being an "icon" of the company - the
| same as the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, etc "unique building
| silhouette".
|
| Things as documented by:
| https://twitter.com/utbaph?lang=en
|
| A McDonalds that is built into Westminster Abbey may be
| part of an iconic building, but the McDonalds isn't
| Iconic (nor is the one on the Champs-Elysees).
| majormajor wrote:
| Give it 100 years so that there's enough people nostalgic
| for it around.
|
| Or, even, you don't have to! https://en.wikipedia.org/wik
| i/Oldest_McDonald%27s_restaurant "Along with its sign, it
| was deemed eligible for addition to the National Register
| of Historic Places in 1984, although it was not added
| because the owner objected"
| drstewart wrote:
| >Commodification incentivizes regression to some mean.
|
| I'd frame it alternatively: optimization incentivizes
| uniformity. Inefficiencies are ruthlessly filtered out of the
| system. A wacky color scheme reduces might reduce profits by
| x%, so all fast food restaurants will tend towards the same
| boxy boring structure.
|
| Another example of this for me is sports. Take baseball for
| example: in the past, you had so many different styles of
| players. Pitchers had unique and funky delivery types. It gave
| the game character. Now? If you're not optimizing your style of
| play to deliver the highest value according to the stats,
| you're costing yourself tens of millions of dollars. All the
| character of the game is slowly being wrung out.
|
| This pattern is obviously being played across every domain in
| every part of life. It's pretty sad but entirely rational from
| every individual actor's point of view. And furthermore, it
| seems like an issue that's impossible to fix in a world of
| infinite information.
| meowkit wrote:
| Your framing is a piece of the general principle as far as I
| am aware. It's a multipolar trap that is hard to see because
| we're embedded in it, and in the short term a lot of actions
| appear rational, but have externalities that are only felt in
| the long term.
|
| SSC's Meditations on Moloch is one of the best (and longest)
| essays I've read on this maximization issue.
|
| https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
|
| https://www.worldanvil.com/w/parastellis/a/multipolar-
| trap-a...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
| pdpi wrote:
| > Commodification incentivizes regression to some mean.
|
| Ironically, one of the places where you can reliably find
| colourful stuff is Ikea, which commoditised furniture and
| household items in general.
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| I don't know. Even things that won't be resold arnt colorful
| anymore. All the parks near me with children's playground
| equipment in Ohio, city/school all of them, are now a olive
| green, tan, and gray color scheme. The actual quality and
| variety of the installments are leaps and bounds ahead of what
| I had as a kid, but they look more like military obstacle
| course training than a place for preschoolers to run around in
| Steltek wrote:
| Nope. Resale value is way too forward thinking for a
| corporation these days, it's all about short term profit. McD's
| has been chasing modern fashion and trying to distance
| themselves from your childhood's nascent obesity crisis, with
| salads on the menu and apple slices instead of fries in happy
| meals. Hence you get this "McCafe" look so they can camouflage
| themselves next to the Starbucks next door.
|
| That said, the article is good at highlighting a huge cultural
| trend. Resale value might be only partially a driver of it. A
| lot of my monochromatic purchases will never be resold to
| anyone.
| bko wrote:
| > Resale value is way too forward thinking for a corporation
| these days, it's all about short term profit
|
| This is a commonly repeated trope that is just wrong.
| Corporations are very forward looking. Consider the price
| earnings ratio of the S&P500. It's been on a general upward
| trend since the 80s, only disrupted by recessions and stock
| market crashes [0]. That means stock holders are willing to
| invest more money for future earnings. Discount rates are
| also very low historically which means future earnings are
| discounted at a lower rate.
|
| Similarly the number of companies that earn no profit is very
| high:
|
| > Of the largest 1,500 companies by market capitalization
| today, around 200 weren't profitable during any of the last
| three years. But instead of punishing them, investors have
| rewarded them with a total market value of more than $2.3
| trillion. Wall Street hasn't been willing to attach such high
| market values to unprofitable companies since the late 1990s
| (and even then, the total market valuation of the
| unprofitable companies wasn't even half of what it is now).
| [1]
|
| Private R&D spending is also on an upward trend since the 50s
| as a percentage of GDP, displacing much of federal spending
| in R&D. [2]
|
| Everywhere you look you'll see long term thinking is
| rewarded. The only place you hear complaints about "short
| term profit" is corporate managers that want cover for bad
| results. They can always say they're "investing for the
| future" and their investments will take a decade to pan out,
| but conveniently they won't be around by then.
|
| I doubt you can find any Excel valuation template that's used
| in business school that does not include resale value. You
| can bet the people in charge of purchasing McDonald's real
| estate look very closely at resale value.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclically_adjusted_price-
| to-e...
|
| [1] https://money.com/stock-market-companies-no-profits/
|
| [2] https://cglife.com/blog/recent-trends-in-rd-spending-the-
| lan...
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| > Of the largest 1,500 companies by market capitalization
| today, around 200 weren't profitable during any of the last
| three years. But instead of punishing them, investors have
| rewarded them with a total market value of more than $2.3
| trillion. Wall Street hasn't been willing to attach such
| high market values to unprofitable companies since the late
| 1990s (and even then, the total market valuation of the
| unprofitable companies wasn't even half of what it is now).
|
| Please stop posting this. It only makes Marx's falling rate
| of profit[1] look correct.
|
| 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendency_of_the_rate_of_
| prof...
| CrazyStat wrote:
| I don't get it. Is this some kind of ideological self-
| censorship? We're not supposed to talk about this even
| though it's true because it might make Marxists happy?
|
| What exactly are we supposed to be gaining by burying our
| heads in the sand and refusing to talk about high-
| valuation unprofitable companies?
| cowpig wrote:
| > Nope. Resale value is way too forward thinking for a
| corporation these days, it's all about short term profit.
|
| This kind of blanket statement is almost always wrong about
| anything in the messy real world.
|
| But it's especially wrong in this case. McDonald's is
| effectively a real estate company[0] that has been growing
| over ~80 years.
|
| [0] https://thestrategystory.com/2020/09/24/mcdonalds-real-
| estat...
| nickelcitymario wrote:
| > But it's especially wrong in this case. McDonald's is
| effectively a real estate company[0] that has been growing
| over ~80 years.
|
| I don't think this contradicts the contention that
| McDonald's is too short-term in its thinking to be worried
| about resale value.
|
| Yes, they're a real estate company. But most of that real
| estate is never sold or rented to anyone other than
| McDonald's franchisees.
|
| I think they designed the stores this way because they
| believe -- and probably have troves of data to support them
| -- that this style of architecture is better for their
| restaurants too.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > McDonald's is too short-term in its thinking
|
| It's not credible that a corporation that grows from one
| restaurant into world dominance is guilty of "short-term"
| thinking.
| sophacles wrote:
| It's equally un-credible to pretend the people who were
| making decisions 30 years ago are the same people making
| decisions today. Or to pretend that the type of thinking
| required to grow a restaurant into a juggernaut is the
| same type of thinking that maintains the juggernaut. Or
| that a corporation beholden to the desires of
| shareholders won't change behavior as the desires of
| those shareholders change.
| WalterBright wrote:
| Why would the shareholders want short term thinking?
| Stock valuations are based on _future_ expected profits.
|
| Short term thinking leads to a crashing stock value,
| followed by bankruptcy.
|
| Investors don't want that.
| nickelcitymario wrote:
| ...are you really arguing corporations aren't driven by
| quarterly and annual results?
|
| If I do something today, and the corporation benefits in
| 10 years, I don't get the credit for that. Whoever has my
| role in 10 years gets the credit.
|
| I completely agree that corporations SHOULD think long-
| term. But I fail to see much evidence of that.
|
| If you want to argue that Ray Kroc had a long-term
| vision, you'd probably be right. But I very much doubt
| today's management thinks that far out.
| WalterBright wrote:
| > But I fail to see much evidence of that.
|
| Every large company on the stock exchange is evidence of
| that.
|
| > are you really arguing corporations aren't driven by
| quarterly and annual results?
|
| Have you ever seen companies beat their quarterly
| earnings estimates, and yet their stock _drops_? That 's
| because the shareholders were suspicious that those
| results were short term, and the long term outlook didn't
| look so hot.
|
| Any shareholder that is suspicious that a corporation has
| sacrificed the long term for short term profits, is going
| to dump that stock. Wouldn't you?
| queuebert wrote:
| Maybe just cheaper to build and only loses 5% of the
| brand recognition when the giant arches are still on a
| sign out front.
| fezfight wrote:
| Dont just open your argument with 'Nope'. It makes you sound
| like an ass. Like the people who start with 'sorry' and then
| go on to demonstrate that they're not in fact sorry.
|
| You could say, 'Ive always thought' or 'I have evidence that
| demonstrates that your point isn't totally correct' or
| something that respects the original poster a bit more than
| outward dismissal.
| kidme5 wrote:
| It's also possible they're both correct.
| aeternum wrote:
| Nope is more attention-grabbing, the real question is
| whether it is better to optimize for civility or attention.
| aetherson wrote:
| Happy meals have both fries and apple slices. Source: have
| children.
| swayvil wrote:
| Red Delicious?
| dathmar wrote:
| I think they are Grannies. Taste pretty good. But there
| is an option for fries and apples or double fries. So
| pretty much it's almost always double fries.
| swayvil wrote:
| Good.
|
| My friend grew up with a hatred for apples because her
| school cafeteria served only Red Delicious.
|
| Best apple I ever had was a Pippin.
| fmajid wrote:
| Could be worse, they could have been the cardboardy
| golden delicious.
| dmd wrote:
| Salads are gone. https://fortune.com/2022/06/09/mcdonalds-is-
| scrapping-parfai...
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Here in Spain they've never gone.
|
| The breakfast menu has been cancelled here though since
| Corona and never returned :'( I miss my sausage and egg
| muffin.
| rhino369 wrote:
| Gone entirely or just no longer served all day?
|
| In America, Covid killed the "all day breakfast," which
| is a shame. Sausage and egg muffin is better than all
| their lunch/dinner food.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Gone entirely. Here in Spain it was never served all day.
| Until 10:30 or so they served only the breakfast menu and
| after that only the regular one.
|
| So now it's the regular menu all day. Big mac for
| breakfast? Hmmm. No.
|
| In fact I've never seen all-day breakfast at any
| McDonald's in Europe and I've traveled a lot for work (so
| a lot of hit & run breakfasts at airports)
| grogenaut wrote:
| We still have all day breakfast out in Seattle, just not
| the full menu. My go to is sausage patty, round egg,
| yellow cheese.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Yum yeah... That's the one I miss!
|
| I always wondered how they get the eggs so round but one
| time I saw them make them.. They fry the egg on the
| burger plate but in a metal ring. Cool idea.
| FractalParadigm wrote:
| Meanwhile in Canada we got to keep all-day breakfast, but
| lost out on a handful of only-at-breakfast items.
| McGriddles were gone, but came back around January of
| this year. Breakfast McWraps were also taken away but
| haven't yet returned (far superior to Tim Horton's
| farmers wraps, IMO). Otherwise I don't think the
| lunch/dinner menu changed at all.
| helloworld11 wrote:
| what the hell does COVID have to do with the all-day
| breakfast though? How does cancelling it in any way mean
| anything for COVID policies or spread?
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| It doesn't. For a while the Mcds near me had a reduced
| menu, probably because they had less business and a
| reduced menu was easier to maintain. But it's back to
| normal now, including all-day breakfast (Canada).
| bbarn wrote:
| Ah, that explains it. We went to Mallorca last year (from
| Iceland where I've lived for a few years after leaving
| the US) and I was SUPER excited about McD's breakfast,
| only to find they sold nothing but burgers :(
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Yeah it's sad, I agree. Their breakfast is lovely, and it
| was one of the few places to get something like this,
| most places serve more Spanish style stuff like a
| sandwich with a potato omelet in between. In fact
| McDonald's even had their own version of this one too.
| But they also did the usual ones.
| BLanen wrote:
| You understand that the operators of the McDonald's don't own
| the building? The owners of the building have obvious
| incentives.
|
| It's not even a long-term vs short-term thing.
|
| The boring building increases your capitalization as a
| holding more, allowing you to financialize it more.
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| I agree with this. If a rental doesnt have white walls wood
| floors or dull tiles I wont rent it. White walls makes a place
| feel spacious and I want my white furniture to match.
| ghaff wrote:
| You see this with auto dealerships, etc. as well. There's a
| real tendency to stock the neutral white, silver, black, grey
| colors rather than brighter colors which I assume are more
| polarizing. If someone needs a car, stock cars that pretty much
| everyone will live with given the need, as opposed to cars that
| some may love but others wouldn't be caught dead in.
| sigstoat wrote:
| > There's a real tendency to stock the neutral white, silver,
| black, grey colors rather than brighter colors which I assume
| are more polarizing.
|
| i think it's further up the chain than the dealership. when
| i've taken a look, most of the manufacturer colors were
| fairly neutral. there might be blues and reds, but they're
| muted. the dealership couldn't buy something bright unless
| they're selling kawasaki motorcycles.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| Also, the more expensive cars get, the more boring the
| color options become. Small cars are sometimes available in
| fun colors, but big cars are only available in shades of
| grey.
| bombcar wrote:
| They'll stock the reds and yellows, but usually in the
| convertible, and the one parked out on the corner of the lot
| where it catches your eye.
|
| The vast majority of the vehicles are ordered in colors that
| will sell. Some auto companies assign vehicles to dealers,
| others let the dealer pick the options on the ones they're
| getting, and the dealers know what will sell (and upsell).
| daniel-cussen wrote:
| Plus it's a huge computational problem, there's huge worth
| in having _the_ car the customer wants configured just
| right for her, the day she walks into the dealership. It 's
| an easier sell that much is true, but it's a better sell
| for her because she gets everything she wanted when she
| wanted it, which is worth more to her in money. End up
| splitting the difference. Otherwise it's like, order it (I
| think there's a paper options menu you tick boxes off of)
| and wait, wait two weeks, and maybe it won't even arrive in
| two weeks because of delays (more common now in the
| twenties) so it's a huge CPU-intensive task. Then also they
| rent a lot of GPUs to get real-time pixel-something...like
| rendering a car with all the options the tire-kicker wants
| so he can see the whole car when buying online. That's
| cool, that's tech, that's computationally difficult.
| ghaff wrote:
| >wait two weeks
|
| You wish. The situation is slowly improving but I had to
| wait 6 weeks for a car earlier this summer that was "in
| transit" (which I guess was to say it existed in the
| manufacturer's database someplace). This wasn't even a
| build to order vehicle. I suspect that would have been
| months.
|
| I'm not sure where computational power enters into it.
| It's just that dealers want to mostly have cars on their
| lot which are acceptable to the greatest number of buyers
| who want/need a car _right now_ which the model in hot
| pink isn 't going to be for a lot of people.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| In the last few years I've seen a lot more of these "flat-
| ish" paint colors on new cars. They've got a gloss finish,
| but the color coat reminds me of a battleship, truck, tank,
| or other military vehicle. Initially they really stood out to
| me because they were different than the usual car paint
| colors / formulations (lacking any metallic element and being
| much less "shiny").
|
| I know I report my car's paint color to the DMV when I
| registered it. (Paint colors are also encoded in many
| manufacturers' VINs, I believe.) It would be neat to make
| some kind of visualization of car paint color popularity over
| time using DMV data.
| pottertheotter wrote:
| The article has a chart showing car paint color over time.
| dr_orpheus wrote:
| Below is the direct link to that chart. I thought the
| small surge of brown cars starting in 2010 was
| interesting.
|
| https://www.thedrive.com/news/37001/this-graph-shows-how-
| car...
| cityofdelusion wrote:
| Indeed, the flat colors are just non-metallic and non-pearl
| coats. Its a sign of changing fashion trends -- flat coats
| used to be far more popular in the era before all paints
| had metallic flake (basically glitter). They only stand out
| because metallic paints became very common as opposed to
| being once rare.
| [deleted]
| luma wrote:
| Matte finish cars are almost always wraps, and the finish
| is often times very difficult to keep clean. They're
| popular with expensive sports cars specifically because
| they are "exclusive".
| frostirosti wrote:
| re: Housing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_ladies) In
| San Francisco there's the tradition of painting your home as a
| "painted lady" which means you painted the home using 3
| contrasting colors. Also there are some that have painted in
| this matte black painted as well which are definitely a
| striking appearance
| swayvil wrote:
| Nothing says adequate dining like that big beige _M_.
| drewcoo wrote:
| McDonalds is more of a real estate company these days, so that
| might actually be their plan.
|
| https://thestrategystory.com/2020/09/24/mcdonalds-real-estat...
| Theodores wrote:
| For shades of grey you just need titanium dioxide. It is white
| and not something people worry about if it is in food.
|
| For reasons I don't understand, many colours need fairly toxic
| chemicals. Just think of the names. Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue -
| would you like a bit of strontium nitrate with that?
|
| Because we eat food and have children, we can't have all the
| colours that we used to have. We can't even have lead in paint
| these days.
|
| This is just one factor, and it supports my general belief that
| progress in fashion/art/design is technology driven.
|
| Regarding bland houses, what do you expect when the only people
| buying homes are doing so in order to rent seek/flip the
| property? Particularly when IKEA is just a short drive out of
| town.
|
| Cars is the same deal, paint technology has changed to be less
| toxic and people buying cars aren't buying them with their own
| money to own forever. They got to get that resale at the end.
| projektfu wrote:
| Colors are often toxic because they need to have the ability to
| absorb many wavelengths and reflect or re-emit particular
| bands. Transition metals have lots of ability for electrons to
| move between oxidation states, allowing this absorbtion and re-
| emission, but many form toxic compounds. Similarly, aromatic
| compounds, especially those containing nitrogen, have this
| ability. Unfortunately many are toxic, and many of the less
| toxic ones fade in the light.
|
| That said, toxicity is relative to dose and dose depends on
| whether these things are free in the environment. A lot of
| things like cadmium dyes can be effectively trapped and are
| less toxic than other commonly used chemicals. Long-term,
| however, such as in a landfill, the story is not as simple.
|
| Notably, lead oxide paint was used because it was bright white.
| Titanium dioxide is not as good but obviously much safer.
| yusege wrote:
| It was mostly copper and gold colors in the beginning of the
| graphic. Then they found same ways to apply colors to objects.
| And we can't say anything now about if Color has been
| disappearing from world. The data and graphic is not complete. It
| could be demand and demand can change with time. People may be
| bored from black and grey in future and all the object colors
| would change.
| mooreed wrote:
| I love the scientific discussion here, but much of this seems to
| miss the idea of "millennial minimalism". The preference tends
| towards plain/simple buildings so that nature can have the main
| stage.
|
| Have no fear Gen Z is a pendulum towards radical 90s colors.
| ekianjo wrote:
| I blame Apple.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Apple is far exceeding every other competitor at providing
| color options.
| omega3 wrote:
| Which is ironic considering what they were doing in the 90s
| with the iMac G3.
| djmips wrote:
| and their logo used to be a rainbow apple.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I feel like Cook & Co. have been bringing back the rainbow
| apple, no?
| gausswho wrote:
| I may prefer muted colors because saturated ones I associate with
| advertising and thereby nuisance, noise and dishonesty.
| [deleted]
| t-3 wrote:
| Black, white, and grey are also colors. The reason for their
| popularity is likely due to the modern aesthetics of simplicity
| and elegance. Bright colors give a "busy" appearance, they are
| gaudy and attention-grabbing. Emotionless, professional, and
| modest "inorganic" tones give the impression of maturity and
| sophistication.
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| And Goths :)
| OGforces wrote:
| hulitu wrote:
| And the dark is light /s
| angst_ridden wrote:
| Our house has been a dark blue with white trim for over a decade.
| We built an expansion in our back yard, and painted it a fairly
| saturated purple. It's not visible from the street (except one
| very narrow angle).
|
| However, we received hate mail from neighbors who complained that
| the view from their 2nd story window into our back yard was
| spoiled, and that we should respect that we lived in society not
| in some hippy commune.
|
| Other neighbors regularly bring their visitors to stand at the
| one tiny piece of the sidewalk where they can look down our
| driveway to see the purple, and point and shake their heads and
| grouse about it.
|
| It's really kind of amazing how much hostility the color has
| generated. We used to be invited to neighborhood gatherings and
| cocktail parties and such. Now, because we callously refuse to
| repaint the extension and main house some sedate dull color,
| people literally won't speak to us.
|
| This isn't an HOA neighborhood; it's an artsy-boho community
| known for creative types and public murals.
|
| TL;DR people suck, colors are cool.
| polynomial wrote:
| Related question of why TVs/displays basically only come in basic
| black. In some of the rooms in our home the TV is literally the
| only black thing in the entire room.
| animal_spirits wrote:
| Color and style trends go hand in hand and in my opinion I think
| the loss of color is good for a more sustainable future. As style
| trends change people are more likely to trash old stuff for new
| stuff, and if the stuff is not strongly tied to any style-trend
| then it's likely people will not throw it away.
| mrwh wrote:
| Dark grey houses, why? I've seen so many recently renovated and
| for sale houses painted the drabest colours and I really don't
| understand it at all. It's like a symbol for being tasteful,
| without actually having any taste.
| dwheeler wrote:
| I think it's just a current fashion. There's no point in
| complaining that fashions change; it's better to accept that they
| do. The skirt hems go up in some years; in other years they go
| down. Bell bottoms are in, then they are out. And so on. Fashions
| will keep changing, and it's OK :-).
| Tanoc wrote:
| There's a couple of reasons why. None of them are particularly
| pleasing.
|
| For one, it costs more money to dye the plastic or paint/anodize
| the metal. Everyone except children are going to buy the product
| based on function or need and companies have determined that the
| colour has no outsized effect on which one they choose. So it's
| cheaper to use basic black plastic and unpainted metal.
|
| The other is that for things like cars and furniture there's a
| resale factor. A car is a big investment, and you want as much
| money as possible to put towards the purchase of the next one. A
| bright colour like yellow might make you happy while you own it,
| but it will be difficult to sell to other people as it's a very
| loud and ostentatious colour. It's the same with furniture and
| home architecture. '70s patterns in carpet will reduce the resale
| value of a house because few people will be willing to adapt
| their furniture to match.
|
| For corporate environments it's about ease of repurposing the
| space and to be the least bit disruptive to where they're doing
| business. It'd cost a lot of money to remodel all the old red
| steel roof McDonald's if that lot were ever sold. In fact there
| are plenty of gable roof Pizza Huts that just got repainted after
| they were sold because remodeling the building cost too much
| money. McDonald's trend towards grey earth tones using metal and
| stone is so they can fit into big cities these days, especially
| in Europe and Asia. The coffeehouse aesthetic that Starbucks
| pioneered has proven especially attractive in those markets, and
| other companies are following suit by trying to use that same
| look to blend into modern five over ones and block highrises.
| katbyte wrote:
| I 100% make purchases based on colour. Not just colour but it
| is very important to me in deciding.
| stinos wrote:
| _The other is that for things like cars and furniture there 's
| a resale factor._
|
| That's shifting the 'why' question to: why do people care more
| about resale value now than they did 20 years ago. I'd guess
| the reason would be the state of the economy? However a search
| for 'car color linked to economy' reveals other theories, like
| paint used: https://slate.com/culture/2011/10/car-paint-colors-
| why-are-s...
| macintux wrote:
| I'd posit cars are lasting longer, and thus retaining their
| value, making resale more worthy of consideration than it
| might have been decades ago.
| quietbritishjim wrote:
| > For one, it costs more money to dye the plastic or
| paint/anodize the metal.
|
| Ironically, I suspect the reason is exactly the opposite: that
| colour is now essentially free compared to grey/muted. I
| certainly don't think people are buying grey carpets, on
| balance, because it's cheaper.
|
| It used to be that it was difficult to colour things
| significantly. In the long distant past, you can think of
| "royal purple" being so expensive that only the real elite have
| access to it. In early 20th century, that's no longer exactly
| the case but still I would expect colour fabric is somewhat
| expensive, so it's still the preserve of a richer class. When
| it become accessible in the mid 20th century, it becomes
| popular as people still think of it as being more premium.
| Finally, another generation comes along that doesn't think of
| deep colour as being a premium product (because everyone has
| it) and either rebels or just evaluates it on its actual merit.
|
| None of the above is backed with any actual evidence. But
| that's certainly how elite clothing has progressed i.e. why
| world leaders wear grey suits today instead of elaborate
| coloured gowns.
| dan_mctree wrote:
| Yes, and nowadays we associate bright colors more and more
| with ads screaming at us for attention. This makes these
| colors feel cheap and tasteless, you don't want to look like
| an ad
| femto wrote:
| > ...it costs more money to dye the plastic...
|
| I'd posit that the real cost is the cost of carrying more
| inventory. It's cheaper to carry 200 in beige than 100 in each
| of 10 colours. It means you're less likely to be out of the
| colour the customer wants and you don't have to track/manage
| the different options.
|
| Compare with clip on covers for mobile phones. Heaps of
| colours/design available, but it's not a cost to the
| manufacturer as they leave all that up to third parties, who
| are effectively charging extra for the option of colour.
| ssharp wrote:
| > For corporate environments it's about ease of repurposing the
| space and to be the least bit disruptive to where they're doing
| business. It'd cost a lot of money to remodel all the old red
| steel roof McDonald's if that lot were ever sold.
|
| One of my favorite examples of this is the old Red Barn
| Restaurant chain [1]. The buildings were barn shaped and when
| they went out of business, they often times were repurposed as
| something else. They still stick out so much anywhere you come
| across them and I always am excited to see what business
| occupies them and how the the juxtaposition between the
| building and business is. One of my favorites is this one,
| which is now (or at least was at the time of this street view),
| a Sushi restaurant:
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1006047,-80.743547,3a,75y,21...
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_(restaurant)
| bombcar wrote:
| IHOP, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut are the ones I notice the most
| these days.
| janef0421 wrote:
| Personally, I like the more muted colour palettes of modern
| design. It makes things less busy and highlights what colour does
| exist.
| mikkelam wrote:
| Eh, fashion is usually very cyclical. At some point, people will
| get tired of this and things will trend the other way. Same way
| as 90s-00s clothing is very popular these days.
| angryGhost wrote:
| explains why I see white tank tops everywhere
| powersnail wrote:
| Anecdotally, I look out from my window, and in the parking lot,
| there are 7 black, 6 white, 6 gray (of different shades), 3 red,
| 2 dark blue, 1 grayish blue, and 1 Windows-XP-blue cars. 7 out of
| 26 are colorful.
|
| I personally like bright color for little objects (pens, ties,
| socks, etc.), but black and white for the big things (like cars).
| The small stuff feels like silent, introverted rebellion. But
| pink cars and bright green houses? It's just too conspicuously
| salient. There's nowhere to hide. It invites too much attention,
| and grips so many eyeballs, that it makes me feel naked in a
| crowd.
| tfandango wrote:
| I know some cars cost more to get a different color, like
| Teslas. They come in white, but if you want something like red,
| that's an extra $1000. I recently wanted to buy a car and
| [anecdotally also] the dealerships have like 90% black and
| white cars, and maybe there a couple of grey cars!
| [deleted]
| slowmotiony wrote:
| "Sites which allow you to use the back button are disappearing
| from the world"
| blfr wrote:
| I got so used to opening in the new tab that I don't even
| notice this anymore. Infuriatingly, some sites disregard
| ctrl+click and either still open links in the same tab or both
| in the same and in the new tab!
| thinkling wrote:
| If there's a Firefox plugin to fix that behavior, I'd love to
| know!
| silon42 wrote:
| that's why I have thousands of tabs open
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| It doesn't help that some web frameworks make it difficult to
| preserve the open in new tab behaviour
| madeofpalk wrote:
| What modern (last 10 years) web framework makes it
| difficult to have links be links?
| [deleted]
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| NextJS complains if you don't use their Link component,
| which in turn doesn't allow open in new tab unless you
| nest a dummy <a> inside it. Because I think the Link uses
| onclick then if there is an immediate <a> child will set
| it up.
| leerob wrote:
| The <Link/> component is used for client-side page
| navigations in the same application. If you need to open
| links in a new tab with `target="_blank"`, you should use
| the normal <a/> tag.
| pier25 wrote:
| That's not what the parents are complaining about. It's
| when the user wants to open a regular link in a new tab
| using a key modifier.
| leerob wrote:
| This is working for me (just tested). Can you share one
| that isn't please? I can investigate.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| I just realized you work for Vercel, so how about I try
| to minimum reproduce then I can raise an Github issue?
| leerob wrote:
| That would be very helpful, thank you!
| pier25 wrote:
| Hey Lee. I'm not saying it doesn't work :)
|
| I'm just saying they are talking about something else.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Yeah the one thing I love to do, because hey it is the
| web, is open navigations in a new tab. For example when
| banking see my transactions in one tab while making a
| payment in the second. I hate sites that break that.
| Banks like to do that presumably for security theatre.
| NextJS makes it easy to mess up but once you know the
| trick it is ok - they should probably add a console
| warning for it.
| Timpy wrote:
| I got into this habit long before I got into tech, I wasn't
| even conscious of the reason why. You're right, it's
| extremely frustrating when a website breaks middle-click to
| open in new tab behavior.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Double click or double tap!
| cpach wrote:
| Friendly reminder:
|
| _"Please don't complain about tangential annoyances--things
| like article or website formats, name collisions, or back-
| button breakage. They 're too common to be interesting."_
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| denimnerd42 wrote:
| complaining about breaking the guidelines is too common to be
| interesting. let's add that one in there too.
| cpach wrote:
| Feel free to send an e-mail to the moderators and suggest
| it.
| youor wrote:
| tambourine_man wrote:
| Being too common now is interesting when it didn't used to
| be.
| cpach wrote:
| The example was included in the guidelines for a reason.
|
| And in any case it's not at all relevant to an article
| about color scales.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| That's a bullshit guideline. Back button breakage is a crime
| against usability and we should be as vocal and irritating as
| possible about it -- especially in a forum that regularly
| results in changes along the "Why did (insert FAANG) lock my
| account with no explanation?" front.
|
| Again, this guideline is garbage. Rage against it. Rage
| against back button breakage.
|
| There should be a guideline against citing the guidelines.
| I'm guilty of it too, but it's a boring and shitty (and off-
| topic! it's metadiscussion!) thing to do.
| OrderlyTiamat wrote:
| I think this is a worthy cause and something that interests
| me. But it should have its own place, and not be brought up
| randomly on some other topic. Perhaps you or someone else
| could write a post on it and submit it! That would lead to
| better engagement and a more focused discussion. It would
| also be in tune with the guidelines- come to think of it,
| that's probably why the guidelines are as they are.
| dang wrote:
| I appreciate the juicy center of good humor inside your
| comment of rage. Maybe the following will help (probably
| not, but I'll try).
|
| You're right, of course. It's just that there are competing
| values, so we have to make a tradeoff. One value is
| usability and having web content be less annoying,
| intrusive, abusive, and so on. No disagreement there. I
| think most HN readers share similar feelings about these
| things; certainly I do.
|
| The other value is curiosity. Curiosity likes new things,
| different things [0], unexpected things--things it can
| learn from. It doesn't do so well with repetition [1],
| indignation, or genericness [2].
|
| These two values conflict because complaints about the
| former tend to be repetitive, indignant, and generic.
|
| How to decide the conflict? That question actually has a
| clear answer, because we're trying to optimize for just one
| thing here, namely intellectual curiosity [3]. So that
| value has to win.
|
| This is one of those cases where it's super helpful to have
| just one thing you're optimizing for and to know exactly
| what it is. It's not that this is the 'right' decision, the
| 'correct' guideline, or anything like that--it's just
| correct relative to what we're trying to optimize for.
|
| [0] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=fal
| se&so...
|
| [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=fal
| se&so...
|
| [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=tru
| e&que...
|
| [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=tru
| e&sor...
| youor wrote:
| aaron695 wrote:
| xwdv wrote:
| The real reason we're seeing less color is because we've finally
| reached an enlightened state of taste where we begin to
| appreciate the unpretentious beauty of true neutrals. By taking
| away color, we can instead appreciate the beauty of pure shapes
| and natural lines or textures. Sometimes color can be so
| overpowering that all you see is a color, and the underlying
| object becomes harder to appreciate.
|
| I think the new McDonalds looks far better than the gawdy
| colorful looking one of the past. But I guess if you were a child
| with poor sense of style you may prefer the latter.
| racl101 wrote:
| A microcosm for me is not wanting to stand out in any way with
| the colors that I use to dress. More and more I fear people I
| encounter in train stations and down town. People are just
| nuttier and more radical. I don't know if it's the politics,
| COVID or increased drug usage.
|
| Anyway, I dress in drab colors and try not to stand out. I avoid
| strong reds, yellows, greens, blues, or anything that could make
| me stand out like national flag colors or rainbow
| representations. Don't wanna accidentally call attention on
| myself by showing any kind of allegiance to anything.
|
| Ironically, now I can afford clothes that I couldn't afford
| before but I no longer feel like I can spend money on things that
| are frivolous nor flashy for the reasons stated.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| npc
| jjslocum3 wrote:
| We get all our color from our screens now.
| joshstrange wrote:
| For myself I've always bought the black (or whatever they call it
| this week) iPhone because I just assumed it would be the easiest
| to get and would have the highest/easiest resale. The resale is
| less of an issue as I'm just perpetually on the upgrade program
| now but I've always worried that getting a more exotic color
| could potentially push back my ship date. Maybe this year I'll
| try getting a color other than black. I just don't care much
| because I always put a (black) case on my phone so I don't
| imagine a colored iPhone would even be noticeable.
|
| As for cars and other places where I could pick color I often go
| with gray/black because it's more versatile, less "offensive",
| and doesn't require me to "commit" to a color. I'm fine with
| bland colors overall whereas I can't be sure that I'll like that
| blue/red/etc color in 1 week, month, year. Bland just feels like
| the safe choice, even if that's a silly reason.
| jedberg wrote:
| My wife just got a new iPhone, and she picked the blue (we've
| both had black for a while now) and then she picked up a clear
| case specially so you could see the phone color underneath.
|
| She said, "If I'm gonna get the fancy color there is no point
| in covering it up with solid color case".
| magpi3 wrote:
| Does the web have something to do with it? Everything is
| photographed and put online these days, and I wonder how that
| affected how people think about color both on and offline.
| randcraw wrote:
| Bright color is seen as upbeat, happy, optimistic. But we aren't.
| slowmovintarget wrote:
| I've been scrolling looking for this. This, I think, is the
| actual correct take. Not resale value, or mass appeal which is
| a symptom.
|
| There have long been studies on the connection between societal
| optimism and color choice. The fashion industry and car
| industry in particular are trailing indicators for public
| sentiment on the state of the world.
|
| https://www.pcimag.com/blogs/14-pci-blog/post/104991-how-col...
| drannex wrote:
| That's my article, very interesting to see posted here!
| imwillofficial wrote:
| Great work, keep tha noggin workin!
| imwillofficial wrote:
| Seriously, downvoted for an attaboy? HN is a weird weird
| place some days.
| sjostrom7 wrote:
| The car color graph is very effective, nice work.
| well_actulily wrote:
| (Sauce) https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/j7y
| fqb/oc_...
| bombcar wrote:
| I wonder if something can be deduced about people's opinion
| of the world/economy based on the colors (or at least the
| manufacturer's).
| wincy wrote:
| I'm getting serious deja vu here, wasn't this article posted a
| week or two ago?
|
| Edit: found it, this article was similar
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32468950
| seydor wrote:
| > have now modernized to becoming boring minimalist (and I love
| minimalism)
|
| Minimalism and "Contemporary" architecture have overstayed their
| welcome. I love looking at architecture videos, but damn all
| houses are the same nowadays! Same boring pallette, empty walls,
| large windows etc. no wonder there is no color. Even the
| architect's narrative is boring. Have all the architects been on
| vacation for the last 10 years?
| safog wrote:
| Yeah I think it's a wider design movement - everything's
| transitioning towards more neutral / no strong colors / accents
| vibe. Interiors, architecture, logos, fonts, furniture, what
| not.
|
| Dunno if there's a name for this movement beyond "contemporary"
| design. It's not exactly minimalism I don't think.
|
| Eventually there will be a reaction and something new will come
| up.
| bitlax wrote:
| You're going to love your new shipping crate home!
| seydor wrote:
| they re not that colourful either
| bombcar wrote:
| Almost all houses are built by the builders for the
| development, so they're all building the same damn house over
| and over and over again, and since they don't know who the
| customer will be, they build the default "acceptable house" as
| currently looking good in Home magazine.
|
| Try to find a new house without an open concept. It don't
| exist.
| seydor wrote:
| In the next iteration, toilets will join the open concept
| ghaff wrote:
| A lot of it is practical. People tend to live differently
| than a generation ago. How many people today really want a
| formal dining room that's separated from the kitchen? Or a
| dedicated formal living room?
|
| A number of years back I had to have some major construction
| for structural reasons and it ended up opening up much of my
| ground floor considerable--and it's really so much better.
|
| I'm not saying it all has to be one big fully open floor plan
| but generally speaking at least kitchen/dining area and maybe
| other common spaces are more useful as an open plan.
| kansface wrote:
| Minimalism doesn't imply grayscale. Consider the color fields
| of the abstract expressionists or In C by John Cage (grayscale
| would be octaves or perhaps perfect intervals only).
| Desaturated everything is the aesthetic of contemporary
| Scandinavian design which is rooted in minimalism. It will go
| out of vogue eventually.
|
| Most things in the US at least are not designed, they are just
| built (90% of all houses). Architects aren't even in the
| picture.
| chrismorgan wrote:
| Discussed a few weeks ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32261571
| lbriner wrote:
| I wonder how much in houses is related to how frequently we re-
| furnish our houses compared to 50 years back. I know old people
| who have the same wallpaper and furniture that they had when they
| got married, "if it aint broke, don't fix it", the younger
| generation is now much more likely to.
|
| I have had 3 different sets of sofas/chairs in the last, perhaps,
| 7 years. Neutral colours means I can change the fittings to
| whatever I feel like. What I don't want to do is repaint
| everything to match.
| derbOac wrote:
| I do think this is part of it. When I got married my spouse
| wanted a set of really bright-colored dishes. I liked them too,
| but was worried we'd get tired of them and want something else,
| and preferred neutral colors for that reason.
|
| Neutral colors aren't as appealing to me at some level but I'm
| also less likely to tire of them, and as you say, I think
| they're more compatible with other changes.
|
| I've wrestled with this in some recent remodeling too, thinking
| a blue would be nice here, but decided against it because I
| didn't want to change my mind later. But I was remodeling, so
| maybe it's inevitable anyway.
|
| I think so much is disposable in our lives that maybe we
| gravitate toward colors that seem less ephemeral.
| munificent wrote:
| For what it's worth, I have never once regretted making a
| bold color choice in my home. I've been using bright orange
| as a the primary accent color in my kitchen for about fifteen
| years across four homes and still love it.
|
| Life is too short for fucking beige. Build a space that
| reflects what you love and if what you love changes, so be
| it, change your space then. But there's no reason to
| shortchange yourself now in subservience to a future self you
| may never become.
| jacooper wrote:
| I personally bought a white phone once, it was the S10+, i
| did it because it was the flashy color and it was on every
| AD, also the Black sucked on that phone, there was no
| midnight black.
|
| After a couple of months, I regreted it, and my next phone
| was naturally black.
| bombcar wrote:
| I find with things like "plates" that the normal
| china/white/off-gray colors are fine.
|
| But with things like mixing bowls, measuring cups, etc,
| having bright colors is incredibly helpful if someone is in
| the kitchen with you - "give me the red cup" is easier to
| understand than "give me the 1-1/4 cup, no that other one
| over there".
| sjostrom7 wrote:
| I'm no interior designer, but I think it's fun to let decor
| mutate slowly instead of "redoing the living room". If I see a
| chair I like, what do I need to change for it to fit in with
| what I have? I don't know if it's cheaper in the long run, but
| it does keep things more interesting imo.
| jaredcwhite wrote:
| Ugh, that "modern" all-gray home decor style. I can't stand it.
| Not saying everything should be purple and gold and rainbows, but
| for the love of all that is good and decent in this world,
| please: _it 's OK to add some splashes of bright color in your
| home!!_
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| This, 1000%! I painted the exterior of my home a BRIGHT blue
| with a BRIGHT yellow door amongst the sea of beige and grey
| dreariness (I mean we live in Portland, was the 9 months of
| grey not enough?!). Two of my neighbors detest it based on
| their passive aggressive comments, but otherwise I get tons of
| compliments. Every time I arrive home from somewhere, it puts a
| huge smile on my face seeing those colors light up our street.
| This beige and grey trend can't die fast enough.
| ghaff wrote:
| Yeah. My brother just built a house and it's grey everything.
| As a homeowner I do see the logic in not proliferating too many
| different colors throughout the house but if it were me, I'd
| definitely have had at least some variety.
| swayvil wrote:
| There was a famous artist who got brain damage. Afterwards he
| could only see grayscale.
|
| He also started disliking colors. Couldn't actually see the
| color but he thought they looked "dirty and weird".
|
| So that's a possible cause for the popularity of gray. Brain
| damage. Caused by ubiquitous use of antidepressants or bad
| air or whatever.
| scottLobster wrote:
| Yep, I had to convince my wife to get the orange version of
| this rug:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01F9NNJA0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
|
| Because I think grey and orange looks cool with our hardwood
| (and it totally does), and while it took some initial arm
| twisting, she was sold on it as soon as it arrived as we put it
| in the room. Our friends meanwhile have a white fetish.
| Everything that can be white is some shade of white. If they
| didn't have carpet their house would feel like a hospital
| and/or wedding, I honestly feel more relaxed in their
| unfinished basement than their living room
| phkahler wrote:
| Your rug is also removable. That means even if it's there
| while the house is for sale some day, the potential buyers
| will know that it won't be their problem if they don't like
| the color. Also, I think accent colors are required to make a
| home look great even if it's a color I don't like, it's
| better IMHO than all the bland stuff going around.
| mbg721 wrote:
| For interiors, you have to be a little careful; bold color
| walls can end up sucking in light, especially at night. At one
| point a relative's house had a red bedroom that they described
| as "the inside of an animal's mouth".
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| My preference is mostly greys with, as you say, color accents.
| Maybe orange curtains, or a blue couch.
|
| Part of the appeal of course of a grey interior is that you can
| just drop in green upholstered chairs and not have to try and
| match the walls.
| nerdponx wrote:
| Gray walls are one thing, ruining perfectly good wood floors
| with gray finish is another thing, and a lot more expensive
| to fix than a coat of paint. Not to mention black/gray
| backsplash tiles and cabinets.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Who puts gray finish on a real wood floor? That sounds
| crazy.
|
| I assume any non wood color floor that has wood-like
| markings is vinyl.
| jasonlotito wrote:
| So add some color to your home?
|
| > I can't stand it.
|
| So don't do it. This isn't even a mole hill.
| helmholtz wrote:
| Key word being some. If everything is emphasized than nothing
| is. Growing up in India, I'd day good riddance to shouty colors
| and permanent visual overstimulation. Grey is calmn. Neutrals
| are calmn. Fuck colors.
| imwillofficial wrote:
| I don't even know where to start with this one
| imwillofficial wrote:
| Ah yes, downvotes, because "fuck color" is a reasonable
| data driven opinion to express. My bad.
| rdlw wrote:
| What is a "data driven opinion"? Do you mean a fact? What
| data drives your choice of favourite colour?
| imwillofficial wrote:
| Data driven opinions are not facts. An opinion may be
| driven by incomplete or wrong data. I don't expect people
| to only believe facts, that's not fair, and I'm no
| impartial arbiter anyway.
|
| As for what data drives my favorite color, that's
| actually a super interesting question.
|
| All I know is Orange is the best color, fact.
| gausswho wrote:
| Tragedy of the chromatic commons. Barren inoffense is maximum
| profit. Apartments go all white (with any tree that reducing
| light or view distance chopped down) and then it's on you to
| liven the place up.
| toastal wrote:
| Gray interiors are also optimal for making a neutral space for
| doing color-sensitive work like photo editing because
| surrounding colors can taint your perception. My office space
| is mostly gray with a lot of wood and small accents in earth
| tones so I don't ruin the atmosphere for anything related to
| design.
| gartdavis wrote:
| One way to think about this is that color is information. We have
| a processing capacity for this information that became fully
| saturated somewhere between 1967 and 1973, and since then we've
| been creating a surplus that everyone has to filter out as noise.
| In that context, it makes sense to me that consumers (and
| marketers, and product designers) now choose simplicity over the
| radiant chaos of Jackson Pollock, Peter Max, or Ronald McDonald.
| ladyattis wrote:
| It's kind of funny realizing how much I try to add color and
| patterns to my clothing and house decor probably due to being
| someone who suffers from depression. Basically, more color and
| visual variety seems to mitigate some of the worse effects of
| depression for me especially in winter.
| beardyw wrote:
| It's just fashion. People try to rationalise it because they
| don't like to think they are influenced by fashion. Those who
| really aren't are just perceived as weird.
| wilg wrote:
| Fashion changes, but this is probably mostly confirmation bias.
|
| Don't worry about it, this is made-up and just encourages you to
| be nostalgic and fearful.
| yababa_y wrote:
| so the dataset is completely bogus or what is your explanation
| for how this is made-up?
| hasperdi wrote:
| The dataset may not be bogus, but a lot of this fashion /
| what people like / what people think is good
| jefftk wrote:
| How would this be confirmation bias?
| funnym0nk3y wrote:
| For cars I assume one factor is resell value. "Neutral" colours
| seem to appeal to more people and thus selling a bright yellow
| car will either take you longer or won't get your as good of a
| price.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Funny. It's "I love bright colors but the next owner might
| not." Are we in fact collectively nerfing our color preferences
| based on a false assumption?
|
| I have been buying bright red and yellow cars for over a decade
| now (no problem reselling them, FWIW). The problem is that it
| is so hard to even _find_ cars for sale from the manufacturer
| in bright colors.
|
| I think our tastes are being directed by marketing and bean
| counters making "safe bets". I feel like we've been driving
| office beiege for a few decades now.
| d3ckard wrote:
| I would always choose bright color, as I find it safer (more
| visible across weather conditions). It's just hard to get
| them if you want a lease (and I don't want to own a car -
| ever).
| hownottowrite wrote:
| I do abstract paintings for fun. To be honest, they're not that
| good but they are fun. Anyway, what I've notice though is that
| people tend to respond strongest to the brightest colors often
| with an exuberance that feels a bit like they are missing
| something in their lives.
| dgudkov wrote:
| I don't think it's universal. Europe is more colorful than
| US/Canada. I think that's because esthetic education is better in
| Europe.
| unity1001 wrote:
| OOD wrote:
| rstuart4133 wrote:
| As an Australian visiting Europe, I noticed a huge difference in
| the way Australians paint their homes and how it's done in
| Northern Europe. Australia is indeed mostly pastels, and always
| has been. I remember thinking the occupants of the first house I
| saw Brittan must have been schizophrenic. The bright colours and
| contrasts almost hurt my eyes for a while. But it turns in the UK
| I was the odd one out as most people used colour in that way.
| Right now I'm in the Netherlands and it's the same deal - wall
| sized murals cascading with colour through the house.
|
| I'm no expert in why people do things, so I have no good reason
| to speculate. But I did anyway. I put it down to Australian's
| being able to spend part of every day outdoors for the entire
| year. There is no need for artificial brightness inside when you
| looking into a world illuminated by 1kW of sunshine per m2 every
| day. But the UK was downright dreary for large chunks of the
| time. It's not unusual to hear a UK expat in Australia say they
| left the place because they could not stand the depressing
| weather.
|
| If you accept that's what's going on, then the answer is obvious.
| It's caused by global warming. The world is becoming more like
| Australia. :D
| calgoo wrote:
| On possibility is that color is used to make the darker months
| more bearable. I live in Spain now, but am from Sweden.
| Whenever i visit Sweden during Christmas I see a lot of reds
| and greens in the houses with lots of lights and decorations
| etc. Meanwhile, in Spain, people do decorate, but its normally
| less colors, more pastels etc. Barcelona city mostly uses blue
| lights for street decorations, which makes the streets feel
| even colder.
| bobthechef wrote:
| bombcar wrote:
| At least when I was in Mexico the pastels made sense, because
| the outsides of the buildings would get dusty pretty quickly,
| and pastels look fine under dust, but bright colors get muted
| and look a bit weird.
|
| And not everyone would wash their houses, and it didn't rain
| much.
| ztetranz wrote:
| As a kiwi in the US I had the opposite experience. At least
| where I live in New Hampshire, everything seems gray and drab
| compared to New Zealand.
| intothemild wrote:
| As an Australian living in Norway, i was amazed by how much
| color the buildings have here.
| tomxor wrote:
| > It's not unusual to hear a UK expat in Australia say they
| left the place because they could not stand the depressing
| weather.
|
| Note that by definition that is a biased set. Some people's
| concept of fun is limited to high intensity sunshine on a
| beach, personally I like the weather in the UK which feels
| quite balanced compared to many countries, and ideal for a lot
| of outdoor activities... Although this year it's been a bit on
| the hot side, probably not by comparison to Australia, which is
| why I can't imagine living in Australia, i'd constantly be too
| hot to want to do anything more than sit on my arse and drink
| beer.
|
| It's possible people who find this weather depressing are in a
| depressing setting of suburbia where only intense sunshine
| could possibly make it appear less gloomy - maybe they just
| needed to get out and enjoy the wilderness more.
| pottertheotter wrote:
| I'm absolutely with you. While I want some sun and sunny
| days, I much prefer overcast and even rainy days. In fact,
| I'm one who will probably relocate at some point to a place
| that fits that better.
| abeppu wrote:
| I think the relationship with ambient light may be important,
| but shouldn't the trend have gone the other way for the latter
| 19th and early 20th centuries then? As more people shifted from
| being involved in some form of agricultural or other outdoor
| manual labor to factory and office jobs, wouldn't we have seen
| a greater demand for bright colors as people spent more time
| inside?
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| > It's not unusual to hear a UK expat in Australia say they
| left the place because they could not stand the depressing
| weather.
|
| I did too, I lived in Ireland for a while but I couldn't stand
| the depressing weather and short days in winter. It didn't help
| that I lived on the west coast which is even worse than the
| east. Many weeks of non-stop grey and rain.
|
| I live in Spain now and it really helped my mood. Wages are
| lower here but quality of life is so much better. Not just in
| terms of weather but socially too, because people live outdoors
| more.
|
| I lived 2 years in Australia as well which has a similar
| climate but it was too far from family.
| Teelemii wrote:
| My flat is colorful my car is black.
|
| Any other car color would have cost extra which I was not willing
| to pay.
|
| 60-80 were weirdly colorful too bright for no particular reason.
|
| I don't think there is much to interpret into this.
| [deleted]
| nix0n wrote:
| Reminds me of Calvin's Dad's assertion that black-and-white
| photos are actually color photos of a black-and-white world:
|
| https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/11/09/
| glonq wrote:
| As a C&H fan, I definitely did convince my young daughter that
| the world used to be monochrome.
| dalmo3 wrote:
| Maybe these days people spend more time looking at screens, which
| are super colourful and bright. Neutral colours in the real world
| bring a little balance, calmness to it?
| Sqwandery wrote:
| This was my thought as well. The first graph in the article is
| of the color of objects, not all images. I wonder how it would
| compare if it were to include screenshots and whatnot.
| tambourine_man wrote:
| This site highjacks the browser's back button.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| What if... color isn't disappearing, but grays are increasing?
| What if we've discovered beauty and excitement in black, white,
| and the shades in-between?
|
| Though I have happily owned purple, blue, red, and green cars in
| this century.
| yrgulation wrote:
| Has anyone read the link to used data?
|
| "I should note that the data is sourced from Poland"
|
| The title and content are as such misleading.
| blfr wrote:
| Nah,
|
| > I should note that the data is sourced from Poland, but if
| you're hoping for the situation to be any better in the U.S.,
| unfortunately it isn't. Over 23 percent of cars last year in
| the US were white and another 23 percent were black, while
| purple languishes, unloved, as the least popular.
|
| https://www.thedrive.com/news/37001/this-graph-shows-how-car...
| yrgulation wrote:
| Two countries arent the "world". 46% is not a majority.
| IneffablePigeon wrote:
| I found the source article much more illuminating:
| https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/colour-shape-using-computer...
|
| I don't find the headline graph that convincing. Firstly, it's
| only based on items in this museum's collection, which is quite a
| biased set as it says in the article.
|
| Secondly - if you actually look at the colour chart closely, you
| can see that although there is a trend of more grayscale objects
| in the collection, within the coloured section there's also a
| trend away from almost everything being some shade of yellow,
| orange or brown towards a much broader range of hues. Blues,
| greens and purples seem much better represented.
|
| It looks to me like ~70% of the colours were basically "brown" in
| the 1800s, and now ~40% are white/gray/black. Seems more a
| reflection of modern objects being made more out of metal and
| plastic and less out of wood than anything else. Again, this is
| putting aside the clear bias in the samples here.
|
| I'm sure there are trends going on (and the car colour one seems
| legit to me) but I think this overblows it a little. Fashion ebbs
| and flows.
| antioppressor wrote:
| Open your eyes...
| dang wrote:
| Could you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait
| comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it repeatedly,
| unfortunately, and we eventually have to ban such accounts,
| because it's not what this site is for, and it destroys what
| it is for.
|
| If you wouldn't mind reviewing
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking
| the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be
| grateful.
| Dagonfly wrote:
| The video in that article illustrates your point quite nicely
| by displaying the palette at each point in time. The early
| years are dominated by wood grain colors and gold. I'd wager
| gold being overrepresented in a sample based on museum items.
|
| It then switches away from wood to more grayscale plastics.
| Until the 60s, when brightly colored plastics take over.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| And only quite recently has "billet" stainless steel and
| aluminium become a "common" material for consumer goods (as
| opposed to types like die cast which don't have a finish
| that's usually left unpainted).
|
| Both these materials require fairly advanced techniques to
| produce at scale. Firstly the actual materials themselves are
| fairly hard to get good alloys of.
|
| Secondly, they are hard to machine well, especially stainless
| steel, which really needs extremely rigid machinery and high
| speed carbine tooling. Not only that, but to machine the
| shapes of things that would previously have been plastic, you
| really need CNC, which again, only recently has become
| economical for many consumer goods.
|
| Scientific instruments and tools meanwhile would be using
| brass, as it's much more amenable to machining. Milling a
| brass billet on a manual mill is a joy and results are good,
| stainless is a misery, and the results are horrible.
|
| And as to why plastic things were so garish a few decades
| ago? Maybe firstly they were new and it was unusual to even
| be able to have such colours. Early plastics were ahead of
| the dye chemistry, so they were much more "natural".
|
| Secondly, it's actually hard to have good silver finishes
| (you can have grey): many of the high end products were
| silver, but it was usually a coating which would come off and
| reveal the milky plastic. White is also hard because UV
| stabilization was also not as mature, so it would yellow
| quickly[1]. It was easier to have a solid colour, and the
| brighter the better in terms of hiding moulding defects.
|
| [1] It also seems only fairly recently that you can get the
| really deep gloss jet black plastic, rather than the dull,
| very dark grey like a cassette tape body.
| VLM wrote:
| To non-technical people, polished stainless, aluminum, and
| chrome are indistinguishable, and chrome was utterly
| dominant in the automotive field before the 1980s.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| Automotive yes, and standard profiles like tubes, but not
| smaller consumer goods because it's very expensive to
| tool up for a chromed item due to the finish needed on
| the substrate (without CNC, remember). For example a
| chrome case for a telephone handset would be brutally
| expensive compared to plastic (until metallised plastic
| was developed).
| xhevahir wrote:
| I think it's high time for "garishness" to make a comeback,
| at least in the realm of handheld electronics. It's
| exasperating, the belief product designers have that every
| phone or remote control has to be of such a color that one
| can't tell the devices apart or spot one of them from
| across the room.
| dr_orpheus wrote:
| I think there is also another bias in the samples they have in
| that a lot of the older items have developed some sort of
| patina/rust/aging. That tends to skew them in to the brown,
| dark grey and generally muted colors. If you watch the video
| there are a number of items that are old gears, chains and
| machinery.
| throw03172019 wrote:
| Does this blog really need to trap the back button? Use history
| replace instead of push, please.
| causi wrote:
| I do miss when I was a kid and cars were bright colors. One trend
| I've been watching with eager anticipation is the recent rise in
| two-tone car body colors. They're so much more fun to look at
| than a single shade.
| jelliclesfarm wrote:
| i wanted to paint my garden shed red, but my elderly asian
| neighbour said that it would hurt her eyes. so i painted it
| purple and yellow. i would die without colour in my life. it is
| the one thing i miss most from back when i was younger. it is
| slightly better in california but it was positively depressing
| when i was living in new england. i think they have colour in
| their lives only once a year..during fall.
|
| the best colours come from nature. flowers, sunsets, birds are
| disappearing from our lives too. where are our green spaces in
| cities? why is our food drab and brown? i work with a tomato
| breeder and the one thing i learnt is that we still eat with our
| eyes. people pay more for colourful food. being attracted to
| colour is hardwired in most species. it is a mating and survival
| cue for most species. if we dont know how to recognise colour and
| categorise them, we couldnt have evolved to where we are now in
| our timeline. the wrong mushroom or berry would have killed the
| entire tribe drying up their gene pool.
|
| that we are ok with a lack of colour in our lives indicates that
| our flight/fight instincts are lax...our lives are safer,
| predictable, comfortable and less fraught with danger. my nervous
| system is primed for flight/fight. i feel ill at ease when there
| is no colour around me and i still perceive that as something to
| navigate with caution. i am always recording colours or details
| around me...a little recording whirring machine at the back of my
| mind is noting down everything in my environment to make me feel
| safer. it's silence and lack of colour that throws me off.
|
| eta: re: the original article... i think sensors and cameras and
| spectrascopes and all the other wonderful things tech has given
| us dont need colours. we can measure light and heat in other
| innumerable ways to harvest required data. a robot's eyes do not
| need to see like we do...as we automate most functions, colour
| can become unnecessary. practical example: we used to evaluate
| ripeness of produce with colour ...now we use a brix
| refractometer. why try to figure if tomatoes are picked ripe when
| you can save money and time by picking them unripe and ripen with
| ethylene gas...easily monitored for over ripening with floor
| ethylene detectors in large warehouses filled with crates of
| produce from floor to ceiling. we dont need colour because
| technology knows how to utilise all the data in the entire
| spectrum. colour is just a sliver of it.
| [deleted]
| guywithahat wrote:
| The car color one can be explained; people used to order cars
| much more often than they do now, so you'd order exactly what you
| want including wacky colors. Now you're probably just going to
| buy what they have, which means they have to have non-offensive
| colors.
|
| Whether this is what happened to everything else is hard to say,
| but that's at least the short answer for vehicles
| ksec wrote:
| Colour might be missing in the real world. But it lives on in
| Media. Think Printing, TVs and Computer. We might have a less
| colourful in house decoration, but our TVs, Games, Movies has
| brought out much more colour than ever before.
|
| I believe because modern _media_ are too colourful, we
| subconsciously want a much less colourful real world.
| DonaldFisk wrote:
| https://priceonomics.com/why-every-movie-looks-sort-of-orang...
| rtpg wrote:
| It was a trope a couple years back that every AAA game was
| varying shades of brown, despite the tech going up everything
| landed on that look.
| yaseer wrote:
| This feels like "a couple years" to me too, but games like
| Gears Of War which epitomised that brown 360/PS3 palette are
| now pushing 16 years ago!
| achenet wrote:
| https://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=222
|
| brown and bloom :p
| Narishma wrote:
| A couple of decades maybe.
| SSLy wrote:
| The console generation of Xbox 360 / PS3 only ended a
| decade ago
| Narishma wrote:
| And the grey/brown games were mostly popular at the start
| of it and during the end of the previous generation.
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| I just commented something similar.
|
| Personally I find colour very stimulating. I have to hide my
| art books otherwises I end up mesmerised by them for hours. I
| had a bookshelf with a video game collection on it and if I so
| wondered past it I would get trapped staring at it. Not the
| individual games but the whole thing in its entirety
|
| I came across a term for this called HSP (highly sensitive
| person). It seemed pseudo scientific but there is some
| anecdotal truth to it. I often wonder if watching cartoons as a
| kid somehow programmed me to be like this or is it some deeper
| evolutionary trait.
| dghughes wrote:
| White colour vehicles are often the standard colour and do not
| cost anything if you add a colour you may pay $100 to $500 for
| it. Seeing so many white vehicles may be just due to people with
| money issues.
| MonkeyMalarky wrote:
| When buying a car I found that white/black/charcoal were the
| standard options and all the fun colours were only available in
| the sport and premium packages, so the cost difference was much
| more than a few hundred dollars. Of course you could have it
| painted after purchase but most people won't bother to.
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| "Of course you could have it painted after purchase but most
| people won't bother to."
|
| That's super expensive and low quality compared to paint
| directly from the factory.
| MonkeyMalarky wrote:
| Exactly! So now having a coloured vehicle has just become
| another symbol of status like a nice watch.
| pier25 wrote:
| And if you live in a hot place a dark car is a bad idea.
| dghughes wrote:
| If you live in a cool winter climate white colour is bad the
| metal doesn't get warm enough to drive off moisture. Rust
| forms more readily compared to a dark car.
|
| I spoke to a local mechanic who said never buy white or light
| colour car (for this region) he spoke with decades of
| experience.
| vultour wrote:
| Now we need to figure out the right color for a place that
| gets both hot and cold.
| arminiusreturns wrote:
| Yep, I was living in a hot desert when I bought my current
| vehicle. Finding a few papers on heat reflectivity based on
| color quickly solidified my choice of boring white as
| correct. Silver was a close second in the list, everything
| else excluding glitter additives was horrible.
|
| Side note, if you think of engines as cpus, youll understand
| my fascination with high quality radiator/radiator fan
| improvements over stock.
| ur-whale wrote:
| > Color has been disappearing from the world
|
| ... and?
|
| Is that a bad thing for some reason?
| kradeelav wrote:
| Putting aside micro-design trends that come and go per decade
| given this has been happening for longer than just for one or
| two, my bet's on:
|
| a) corporations skewing towards multi-use capabilities (your
| camera is not just your camera, it's a phone, mobile computer,
| app machine, and camera all at once) and
|
| b) corporations trying to capture the maximum amount of dollars
| (said more uncharitably: cater to the lowest common denominator).
| There's a lot of sister comments here that mention that colors
| evoke strong responses - it can be good, but bean counters are
| going to cringe at every lost sale and agitate for neutrals.
|
| Personally I wish the transparent devices of the 90's would come
| back. seeing the internals was magical. :)
| macintux wrote:
| I purchased a pink (well, metallic fuchsia) Jeep Wrangler this
| year, and reactions are wildly positive. I get compliments from
| random strangers at least once a week.
|
| I think people appreciate color, they just don't want to buy
| something that they perceive as harder to sell because of it.
| (Plus, of course, a couple buying a car may both like bright
| colors but like _different_ bright colors.)
|
| Update: I should link to a piece I wrote about the Jeep and
| reactions to it, inspired by a _Bob 's Burgers_ episode.
|
| https://opposite-lock.com/topic/52688/tuscadero
| philote wrote:
| Back in college I bought the only car I could afford at the
| time, a '69 AMC Rambler station wagon painted pink with purple
| stripes on the hoods.. This was mid 90's in Atlanta and I got
| all kinds of positive comments about that car. Which was weird,
| being the introvert I was. My wife still says she's glad she
| met me before seeing my car, lol.
| [deleted]
| aidenn0 wrote:
| All of my cars have been silver or grey because those were my
| choices buying off the lot and I didn't want to pay extra and
| wait to get one from the factory in a more interesting color.
| gspencley wrote:
| While there are almost surely economic forces that incentivize
| colour choices, as others have pointed out, and the article
| points to a gradual trend over time ... I think fashion trends
| tend to swing in both directions as well.
|
| I remember the 80s being colourful and vibrant. Big hair, bold
| colours. Especially in women's fashion. Then the 90s pulled
| back from that quite a bit. Hair styles got flatter and
| straighter, colours toned down. In the 00's I remember 80s
| fashion starting to come back a lot. The last 10 years have
| been felt grey and "flat" again.
| 8ytecoder wrote:
| I wanted a yellow in the used car I was looking for. It was
| incredibly hard to find and because the color was rare, you
| have to compromise on everything else. I believe the resale
| goes up but it takes longer to sell.
| nolist_policy wrote:
| Offtopic: I really like the UI of that forum.
| macintux wrote:
| The curators have put a lot of work into it to make it
| resemble our old home. A very friendly UI and community.
|
| It's the successor to a Kinja site that used to be closely
| affiliated with Jalopnik, before it was detached (when one of
| the contributors misrepresented themselves as a Jalopnik
| author for borrowing cars for reviews); eventually all of the
| unofficial boards were entirely kicked off Kinja by the new
| G/O Media ownership.
| CocaKoala wrote:
| I'll occasionally see cars like that - bright pink, or some
| other bright colour, and they always make me smile. I've taken
| to describing them as "a car that I'd never want to own, but
| I'm really glad it exists". Like the pink camo-wrapped Dodge
| Charger that I occasionally see tootling around town - do I
| want to own a Charger and do it up in pink camouflage?
| Absolutely not. Am I glad that the option exists and somebody
| has availed themselves of it? Absolutely yes.
| jacooper wrote:
| I personally dont find this to be true, its not only resale
| value, this might apply to expensive things, but other more
| daily things like phones, phone covers, etc, always have
| black/white as the most selling color.
|
| This IMO is just a social change, people just like monochrome
| colors.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Last week I was stopped next to a bunch of ladies in a black
| and pink Wrangler with cancer ribbons on it. First time I've
| ever felt the need to comment on a car. It was meaningful and
| very tastefully done. They were delighted for the compliment so
| I must have managed not to sound creepy.
| macintux wrote:
| Wranglers seem to be a popular form of self-expression, I
| suppose because they're very customizable and obviously
| include a lot of flat surfaces (and still mostly steel, so
| magnets work).
| ironmagma wrote:
| To me it seems more of a cult that popped up around people
| who don't care much for the wellbeing of others, road
| manners, or their gas mileage.
| overgard wrote:
| I gotta admit, when I bought my sports car (2022 BRZ) I
| specifically ordered it in white. It wasn't a resale value
| thing (I don't think I ever plan to sell it!), I just thought
| the various colors were a bit too garish -- it already has a
| pretty striking profile in white.
|
| I kind of see what the article is saying, but if I'm perfectly
| honest I can't say it _bothers_ me. I sort of like having beige
| carpets and beige walls, sometimes too much color just feels
| visually noisy.
|
| The pictures from the 1970s kind of amuse me; I've always
| contended that the 1970s might have been the (visually) ugliest
| decade ever. It's colorful but not in a good way..
| CTDOCodebases wrote:
| My personal theory is colour is stimulating and we are getting a
| lot of that stimulation by looking at screens all day. Living in
| a dull space counter acts that.
| h2odragon wrote:
| Bright colors are an effort to stand out from the crowd. That no
| longer a laudable goal; now we admire the safe middle of the
| herd. Don't be unique, don't be unusual, don't be noticed.
| stinos wrote:
| _That no longer a laudable goal; now we admire the safe middle
| of the herd. Don 't be unique, don't be unusual, don't be
| noticed_
|
| Aren't TikTok and all other self-promotion channels not exactly
| about being noticed, being unique (or rather _thinking_ you 're
| unique) and so on?
| h2odragon wrote:
| People who are self promoting on TikTok often wear garish
| makeup and clothing that they wouldn't wear on a bet in
| public. Its performance, and you get to do it "privately" in
| that no one watches you filming, usually. The public audience
| and risk of embarrassment is apart from the performance.
| "singing in the shower".
| cableshaft wrote:
| As one point of anecdata, my wife started doing TikTok
| videos recently to help promote her books. She puts on make
| up and wears cute bows in her hair for the videos. She
| rarely put on makeup and never wore bows in her hair before
| doing TikTok. And the bows come off as soon as she's done
| making the videos.
| stinos wrote:
| On the other hand I regularly see people in the street
| shooting videos, assumingly for TikTok judging by the way
| they act, in rather plain looking clothes. Which I'm now
| not sure anymore whether it proves any point or not :P
| nicbou wrote:
| I think it's fine not to express ourselves through consumption.
|
| That aside, neutral colours are just more practical. They're
| easier to match, easier to clean, and suit more occasions. It's
| more economical all around.
| AlexandrB wrote:
| And the purpose of life is, of course, economic efficiency.
| /s
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| As per the Normcore Manifesto [1], refusing to try rebel when
| society encourages you to really is the greatest form of
| rebellion.
|
| "If the rule is Think Different, being seen as normal is the
| scariest thing... Which paradoxically makes normalcy ripe for
| the uberelites to adopt as their own, confirming their status
| by showing how disposable the trappings of uniqueness are. The
| most different thing to do is to reject being different all
| together.
|
| When the fringes get more and more crowded, Mass Indie turns
| toward the middle. Having mastered difference, the truly cool
| attempt to master sameness."
|
| [1]: http://khole.net/issues/youth-mode/
| asutekku wrote:
| I like normcore as a trend but this is just someone trying to
| justify the trend and trying to make it more meaningful than
| what it actually is.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| This reads like vanilla trying to convince the world that
| it's really the edgy one.
| Applejinx wrote:
| Reads like someone desperately trying to be McLuhan :)
| [deleted]
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Reminds me of this Reddit post:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/vzf9we/harrys_cafe_...
|
| And the comments "looks like a pack of smarties" and "when cars
| came in actual colours"
| pibechorro wrote:
| I personally appreciate the loss of color. Color is amazing when
| its in harmony, like we see in nature. 99% of what people and
| corps wear/make clashes and is garish. Its the same as sugar in
| all our food, you loose subtlety.
| VLM wrote:
| Should be linked to this previous HN story "Tracking Everything I
| Wore For 1 Year" from 52 days ago:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31957210
|
| I noticed in that previous story that the author spent almost the
| entire year wearing dark monochromatic gray clothes and very very
| dark shades of blue.
|
| One theory I would propose is followers follow, and if everything
| around a person from house colors to car colors to, well,
| everything, is bland and colorless, then they will follow, and
| drive even more people into blandness, until essentially
| everything is merely a shade of gray.
| JasonFruit wrote:
| What does the hashtag "#tweet source removed as fascist
| tendencies have been pointed out" mean? I'm assuming they decided
| not to provide a source for information on this post because...
| they don't like the source? I hope I'm misunderstanding; if
| you're using a sketchy source, it's probably more important to
| note that, and you're still obligated to cite people you don't
| approve of.
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