The curse of untidiness | DNA all over the place | The Economist

The curse of untidiness | DNA all over the place | The Economist: "The fat, the impulsive and the untidy are genetically normal, but they are equipped for yesteryear. The thin, the focused and the neat are freaks—but they are cut out for success.

For modern life disapproves of clutter, almost as much as it scorns obesity and fidgeting. Cubicle life and hot-desking make no allowance for employees who own anything. Architects and designers, like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, long ago tried to eliminate clutter from the home, and, along with the arbiters of taste, the high cost of housing argues against clutter. If you want to keep up with fashion, in handbags and iPhones, it is constantly in with the new. Modern life demands that the old should go out at the same time."