Elizabeth Goodspeed on the Importance of Taste – And How to Acquire It

Developing taste is an exercise in vulnerability: it requires you to trust your instincts and preferences, even when they don’t align with current trends or the tastes of your peers. Because while having taste is cool, taste itself reflects a certain type of uncool earnestness – a commitment to one’s own obsessions and quirks.

Taste is about discovery, having interest in things, and making a lot of mistakes. It’s about trying to find the authentic set of choices that both reflect your own background, but also the choices and discoveries that you have made consciously and deliberately. It's always changing and it's also always in reflection of what everyone else is doing ... See more

Taste is a practice you can develop and strengthen. It's a reflection of who you are.

But it’s important to recognize that the goal of developing one’s own taste is not to ultimately land on what other people think is good. Your taste belongs to you

Developing Taste

When the first car came out, consumers didn't care about its color, or silhouette, because the competition was a horse.1 But now that cars have been commoditized, quality and details have become more important than ever.

The same applies to software. Simply shipping a product that works is no longer enough, everyone can do that, espe... See more

Years may pass before you feel like you’re onto something, and this process will likely involve plugging your ears to the siren song of trends until you realize you actually have the same sensibility you had as a kid, it’s just grown up now. I like the word sensibility, I’ve started using it instead of taste when I’m trying to tap into something de... See more