3 ms·

The world is hardly optimized for tall people, as anyone tall who's been on an economy class flight would notice.

• avar 10y ago
  Of course the last thing to be optimized for tall people is something like airline seats where there's significant pressure to optimize costs. Try going to The Netherlands sometime. You'll find that all sorts of everyday objects are optimized for tall people, including the height of counters, urinals, toilets etc.
  • sevenless 10y ago
    Well, the cost matrix is asymmetric. A world that caters for tall people is inconvenient, at worst, for short people; a world where spaces are made for short or medium people is unbearable or unlivable for tall people. The best is to get away from one-size-fits-all, which is why multiple urinals are often installed at different heights.
    • Freak_NL 10y ago
      Except for airline seats. Because tall people now form an opportunity to extract a premium. You can get an economy seat and suffer, or get an economy seat 'plus' that is the same exact seat located at the emergency exit (meaning leg room and freezing cold from the door). You used to be able to just book early and select those seats, but the airlines figured out that people who are tall, want to significantly lower the risk of thrombosis in the legs, and travel with at least some measure of comfort, really want those seats. So now you pay extra with a lot of airlines (looking at you KLM). Being able to traverse busy areas quickly is a benefit though.
      • antisthenes 10y ago
        Considering tall people earn more on average, it's pretty reasonable to expect them to pay more for certain services for which they have a preference.
  • redcalx 10y ago
    > You'll find that all sorts of everyday objects are optimized for tall people Cool, I should move there (6'6"). Then again if enough people did so their average height would increase even further.