It's funny they note swear words in self help books because I couldn't find a single self help book without a swear word in it. I always bring one hardcopy book with me on vacation just in case I don't have power or internet for whatever reason and all the self help books had F*CK in the title (including that asterix).

But I don't agree with the article. I don't agree that everything is exactly the same only that they've picked things that are the same.

For example when they're talking about hipster coffee. Well, in my time in Thailand I only found one hipster coffee shop. It was this one (with a logo strikingly similar to Starbucks). But then, all the top coffee shops in the area don't look anything generic.

I think if you are looking for similarities in things you're going to find them. A lot of engineering and architectural costs are reduced by using models instead of having something individual. On my street theree are 24 single family homes. 12 of them have garages attached to their homes and 12 of them do not have garages attached to their homes. Other than that, they're identical shapes and aesthetics. There's differences in tiling, roofing, and fences.... but basically setup the same.

Where you find the differences are on the insides of the buildings. We decided we didn't need a huge main floor bathroom. So it's the size of a closet with one toilet and one sink. Instead we have a pantry and a large front closet. We had two large bedrooms and a large bathroom, most of our neighbors have one large bedroom, two small bedrooms and a small bathroom.

And that's really the same with their depictions of "identical cities." They look identical specifically because you have chosen an angle to try and make them look as similar as possible. But inside these cities it's quite different.