The first panel this morning is the one I was looking forward to the most, because I'm a pretty big fan of Virginia Postrel, who writes, among other things, the Dynamist. She was here discussing the themes in her new book.
In sum, style matters, and the increased demand for aesthetics in our society is reflects both a deeper sophistication and also a satisfaction of some of our baser needs. Now that dentists have gotten so good at preventing our teeth from falling out, for example, many have now turned to cosmetic dentistry as a way of continuing to expand their range of services. The advance of style in mundane objects like toilet brushes is a result of the power of our economy to extract value to serving ever-smaller market niches over broader markets.
The panel whet my appetite to read the book, which I probably would have picked up anyway.
One other pleasant surprise was walking in to the panel, throwing my ass in the first avaialble seat, and realizing I had just plunked myself down next to two of my fraternity brothers: Rick, who is now a teacher in Austin and has lived here for years, and Heath, a prominent blogger in his own right. Small world.
Posted by wasylik at March 14, 2004 12:43 PM | TrackBack