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Comment by YeBanKo | Hacker News Reader

You are misconstruing creativity of appearance for creativity of experience. Cookie cutter is not an issue. The happiest people are those driving honda civics, buying jeans at Ross and spending most of their energy, money and time on their hobbies, visiting their friends, families and having constant stream of guests over. Some of the best conversations in life happens in the most ordinaries kitchens, at most ordinary tables, on unremarkable front porches, etc.

I love architecture and find it can be very inspiring. But if one’s personal creativity is hamstrung by facade of their home, then I assume they don’t have much of it to begin with.

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> Cookie cutter is not an issue

It is an issue... not because it's built in a cookie cutter way (that's fine, and our suburb has tons of kit homes). What is an issue is the restrictive HOAs and crazy suburban design standards intended to basically prevent any modification.

Like I said, our suburb started off with lots of kit homes, lots of 'cookie cutter' looks, but over time, due to the lack of regulation during the bulk of the development, the houses have been turned into duplexes; they've been added on to; various owners with different personalities have added decorations, etc. In other words, it becomes less 'cookie cutter' over time until everything looks different.

> visiting their friends, families and having constant stream of guests over.

Except that these sorts of visitations / gatherings become far less frequent in suburban settings unless you have the good fortune to have many of your friends / family living close to you.

I live in SoCal, which is far denser than many other parts of the US and despite this, the sprawl is immense - far greater than many other large cities of the world. It doesn't help that public transport is a joke as it takes hours and hours to get anywhere using that and you'd still need a car anyway for the last mile or so if you're heading into a suburb somewhere.

Living in a suburb isn't all bad, it has its perks but it 100% takes a significant toll on your social life for most people I know and have known. I've lived in NYC and other "proper" cities before and this is actually one of the things I miss most about life there - it made it way easier to spontaneously get together after work or on the weekends because of the smaller and much easier commutes.

That is exactly right. In fact, cookie cutter stuff helps to express oneself even more. If the standard stuff serves its utility well, then it spares the energy of having to think and care about it, and leaves more for the rest of the stuff, including self-expression.

at risk of throwing out a beat up cliché, Steve Jobs famously wore the same black shirts as a way of simplifying his life. One less thing to burn brain power on, to have to navigate

Good example, it's the same with Zuckerberg and his wardrobe. And this idea carries over many aspects of life, for example, the meal prep Sunday is a bit similar, but applied to food, and minimalism as a lifestyle also touches on this.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could keep the art but get rid of those messy, opinionated artists?

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