Brian Potter: uncertainty

Transcript context

…So then this is really a revealed preference about the people who are actually renting or buying these properties. People who are living there actually don't want this kind of material design maybe? Yeah, I think that again, it comes back to a little bit about a question of aesthetic style and whether people want a lot of ornamentation and fundamental attractiveness. Cause again, people do focus a lot on making these spaces attractive. A lot of times, they do that by having a nice open space, a lot of natural light, and a cool glass staircase that goes from here to there. The new Google headquarters (I don't know how new it is, but on the newer side), is basically this big, big giant, dome-type thing with a lot of structural detail visible and a lot of just light coming in this big, giant open space. There are a lot of interesting staircases and stuff like that. So to some extent, it's just a style with less ornamentation necessarily than aesthetics per se. Okay, gotcha. The other theories that out there emphasize more of the cultural and aesthetic changes rather than the actual practical necessities of these kinds of changes you've talked about. So one theory is that if you look at the change in men's clothing over the last two centuries, it's also become much more minimalistic and much less colorful and ornamental, right? If you look at King Louie or something, he's wearing a suit with all of these studded colors, dyes, and even gems. But if you look at like a picture of Joe Biden, he's just wearing a suit, and not even a tie anymore, right? It's just a black suit and a white shirt. So there’s this continuation of this sort of aesthetic trend towards being very minimalistic. What's your reaction to that, Cik?…

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