Wacky Chairs & Wonky Decisions
"It's like stepping into a Dr. Seuss book, but way cooler" perfectly describes Gaetano Pesce's designs. Pesce passed away on April 4th, 2024, eight days after Daniel Kahneman, whose work could be described similarly: “It’s like stepping into the surreal quirks of the human mind, but so much cooler.”
Feels like a tenuous connection? Well, hang with me.
"Loss aversion", a bias Kahneman identified, means humans hate losing stuff way more than gaining stuff. We'll go to great lengths to avoid losses, even trivial ones.
What does this have to do with Pesce's resin objects? Sometimes loss aversion makes us stick to the familiar, like boring IKEA furniture and unfulfilling jobs. We're so scared of "mistakes" and fear of loss that we miss out on awesome potential.
Pesce's 50-year body of work was a middle finger to playing it safe. And magic happened!
The next time you feel loss aversion creeping in to keep you stuck, think of Pesce's delightfully bizarre creations. Ditch the fear of losing the predictable. Who knows what mind-bendingly awesome experiences await?
Pesce and Kahneman showed there's a rich world of possibility for those daring enough to challenge the status quo. So get sublimely, surreally, wonderfully lost.