Ask HN: Why Are Programmer Design Tastes So Utilitarian?
by CM30 on Hacker News.
As seen with things like open source software, many developer tools, Hacker News as a website and people’s opinions on CSS and modern web design on places like Reddit? Cause it feels like many people’s tastes come from the 80s/early 90s, with the idea that any sort of visual flourish or attempt at readability is completely irrelevant. And it makes me wonder why this is. Why do so many… hacker type individuals seem to prefer very brutalist, utilitarian designs over anything more fancy? Where did this preference for plain text at the expense of all else come from anyway? Because I don’t think this happens quite as much in other fields, like architecture, cooking or construction.