24Nov24 | Doing it right is not enough, doing it with taste is

“There’re lots of ways to be, as a person. And some people express their deep appreciation in different ways. But one of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there” – Make something wonderful

In software, design, architecture, and art – most people often focus on getting things ‘right.’ And while we always have a clear definition of what it takes to get things right, we don’t seem to know the same about what separates good work from great work. ‘Right’ is good, but it’s not enough for ‘great’. There always seems to be an invisible component that turns ordinary things into extraordinary – and that is ‘taste’.

When Steve Jobs was asked what made Apple's products special, he didn't talk about technical specs. He said "it comes down to taste." But what exactly is taste? Is it purely subjective? Or is there something more concrete we can understand about it?

This question has become increasingly relevant with the advent of AI. As machines get better at doing things "correctly," the human element of taste –that ineffable quality that makes something not just functional but delightful– might be the most valuable skill we're not talking about enough.

The new currency isn't doing more faster—it's creating things that are delightful, original, and resonant. We frequently see designs that follow every rule but lack soul, software that functions perfectly but feels awkward, or writing that's grammatically pristine but still lifeless.

Don't you think this puts some emphasis on the fact that "doing it right" - i.e., checking all the boxes - has become not enough? It’s a deep question actually. Because we’re uncomfortable with what we don’t know. How do we know we “did it” if what it takes to produce great work is unclear?

Taste is in the aesthetics. If there is such a thing as beauty, we need to be able to recognize it. We need taste to make good things. Rather than viewing beauty as an abstract concept, let's treat it as a north star—how do we make -really- good stuff?

Lots of people believe taste is a personal preference because when we appreciate some creation, we don’t know why. But saying that taste is a personal preference is just a polite way to prevent disputes. It’s not true.

In fact, taste is tribal. It's essential to understand that taste varies from group to group, but is highly consistent within the same group. This means that taste only has meaning within a specific ‘tribe’ and it totally loses its meaning outside of that context. A group in this sense means a group of people united by age, location, interest, work domain, or anything in between.

We can see this pattern play out across many different areas and subcultures, think: vinyl records, mechanical keyboards, oversized clothes, minimalist digital design, modern architecture, lo-fi music, artisanal coffee, vintage fashion, and even programming languages. Each tribe has its own aesthetic preferences that might seem odd or unnecessary or extra to outsiders but are deeply meaningful within the group.

In this sense, ‘developing taste’ becomes a process of embracing innovation and staying one step ahead of the tribe. The ability to curate and shape experiences that resonate with the tribe, even before they realize it, not only develops taste but also becomes a contribution to the cult. A contribution that has high chance to gain admiration from individuals who understand it and resonate with it – that’s what we call taste.

This definition brings three main principles that are non-intuitive:

1. Taste is up to the recipient
2. There’s no ‘good taste’, just taste
3. Taste is a slow process

Taste is up to the recipient

Appreciation is a form of taste. Creation is another. Someone could have an impeccable taste in art, without producing any themselves. In both cases, being seen as having good taste is not up to the creator. It's up to the recipient. As a creator, you can't insist you're right.

Someone with taste might create something that goes completely unnoticed by one person while being deeply appreciated by another.

Lots of people often dismiss great creations because they were under-appreciated by the wrong tribe. The keyword here is ‘tribe’. If you pour your heart and soul into something, and you also happen to consume lots of work in the same domain, what you might need isn't to change your work – but to find the right tribe that appreciates it. This principle is well-recognized across different fields: in business, it’s called ‘market fit’; in advertising, it's ‘target audience’; in publishing, it's ‘reader demographics’; and in music, it's ‘genre’.

The key is finding the right people who understand and appreciate what you're trying to create. Once you do, the conversation shifts from defending your choices to exploring new possibilities together.

There’s no ‘good taste’, just taste

When we say taste is tribal rather than subjective, it challenges a common assumption. Most people believe there's a universal scale of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste. But if taste is only defined by the lens it passes through, then broad comparisons of ‘better’ or ‘worse’ lose their meaning.

A minimalist designer's ‘good taste’ might be completely different from a classical artist's ‘good taste’ - and neither is wrong. They're simply operating within different tribal contexts.

It’s not a personal preference, it’s a tribal preference – that’s why it takes guts to contribute to the cult. To have taste is simply to say that you have a well formed opinion. So when we say someone has taste, it implies they understand and can contribute meaningfully to their tribe's aesthetic values.

Taste then becomes a sharp critique, an aggressive filter for ideas and opinions. Through that filter you do things and make decisions, like cook a good meal, enjoy a good movie, build a usable product, or put on a shirt that fits. For all of these things and most others, correctness is enough. But taste puts you in a state that's more than just correct — it adds depth and richness to why and how you made those choices.

And this is also why it’s not typical for someone to develop taste in too many things – this can be disastrous actually. Developing taste requires careful curation of what you consume and create, awareness of your environment, and an understanding of cultural trends. You cannot do it arbitrarily, else the choices you’re making will be just bad. Claiming you have an opinion about too many things, or having acquired taste in many domains, is the same as claiming you are not serious about any of them.

Because it has to come from a place of immersion and confidence, taste takes effort, curiosity, and time.

Taste is a slow process

Some people believe it’s hard to develop taste if you’re not creating anything. And they are right. The more you’re indulged into a craft of any sorts, the more you get to resonate with the tribe that creates and consumes similar works of the same craft.

There are lots of books on writing, cooking, photography, and music. But they can’t possibly help you do better until you see and taste and appreciate what you’re trying to create.

This is the reason why the most creative individuals don’t seem to have any clear boundaries between work and play. But they’re conscious consumers. Like artisans, they’re living in a world where everything is connected together, every input and output. Like a big web of nodes; everything leads to everything. In this world, it becomes super easy to come up with new software design concepts while taking a walk between modern architecture buildings, or come up with ideas for the fiction novel chapter while listening to jazz in a coffee shop. The creative process becomes fluid, where inspiration flows naturally between different domains. Outcome becomes a reflection of a sum of experiences, rather than a calculated effort to be correct.

“Schizophrenics aren’t sunk into themselves. Associatively, they’re hyperactive. The world gets creamy like a library.” – Chris Krause

While taste is often focused on a single thing, it is formed through the integration of diverse, and wide-ranging inputs. This process of input integration is often a ‘slow burn’. It can only happen with time, and it has no shortcuts.

This subconscious slow burn begins with intentional, conscious consumption. As diverse inputs integrate over time, new connections emerge naturally. This leads to endless possibilities for creative expression – which contributes to refined taste.

This is again evident in one of Steve Jobs popular speeches: “I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”

They weren't just building a computer, they were slowly creating something that would resonate with a tribe that valued both technical excellence and artistic beauty.

Everything connecting to everything else might be a symptom of psychosis, but it’s also how the magic happens – Ava Huang

Living with taste enriches our overall experience of the world. It dictates our appreciation for craftsmanship, beauty, and nuance.

“Taste honors someone’s standards of quality, but also the distinctive way the world bounces off a person. It reflects what they know about how the world works, and also what they’re working with in their inner worlds. When we recognize true taste, we are recognizing that alchemic combination of skill and soul. This is why it is so alluring.” – Brie Wolfson in Notes on “Taste”

Thanks for reading!