The age of average (2023)

Perceived Causes of Sameness

• Many tie convergence to profit optimization and cost-cutting: reuse of design assets, modular platforms (cars, buildings), and copying what already sells (Airbnbs, cafés, logos, books).
• Convenience and time scarcity push consumers toward “defaults” (white walls, generic products), and producers toward low-risk, proven aesthetics.
• Globalized supply chains and shared media accelerate diffusion of the same “local maxima” designs worldwide.

Capitalism, Optimization, and Structural Forces

• One camp frames this as a byproduct of capitalism’s drive to efficiency, likening it to “lossy compression” and a homogenizing force.
• Others argue these patterns arise more generally from phenomena like preferential attachment, multipolar traps, and monopolization, not uniquely from capitalism.
• Building codes, safety standards, accessibility, and shared technical constraints also drive similar forms (e.g., five-over-one apartments, glass towers, car shapes).

Historical Cycles and Aesthetics

• Several note that every era has a dominant look that later feels dated; today’s “Airbnb/third-wave coffee” aesthetic will likely read as 2010s–20s style in hindsight.
• Color desaturation (greige, “millennial gray”) is linked variously to aging populations, cost, perceived resale value, and visual overstimulation.

Culture, Media, and Algorithms

• Streaming economics and risk aversion push toward shorter, repetitive music and film franchises, reboots, and formulaic content.
• Like/upvote/share architectures and rating systems are seen as averaging away individuality and rewarding inoffensive, mid-curve choices.
• Some point out vibrant originality still exists (indie film, games, niche music), but it’s harder to find amid mainstream convergence.

Regional Cultures, Food, and Language

• Strong concern over restaurants and regional cuisines converging on “international” crowd-pleasers, especially in tourist areas.
• Similar worries about dialects (e.g., regional accents replaced by big-city styles) and local architectural character being erased.
• Others counter that culinary fusion and new dishes can emerge from the same forces that erase older ones.

Niches, Nonconformity, and Opportunity

• Thread highlights underserved niches (e.g., non–thin-and-light laptops) as casualties of mass optimization.
• Some see the “age of average” as fertile ground for distinctive brands, artists, and subcultures willing to accept risk and smaller audiences.

Critiques of the Article / Experiments

• Multiple commenters find the “average painting” experiment trivial or flawed: averaging survey answers almost guarantees bland results.
• Some call the visual collages cherry-picked or misleading, arguing that real-world variation is greater than the article implies.