The return of umami

When we recognize true taste, we are recognizing that alchemic combination of skill and soul.

Taste is how we anticipate, ahead of time, that we are producing experiences beyond utility — striking ads, viral stunts, sites that sing, opinionated onboardings, copy with character.

The umami generation process accelerated by breaking cultural things into discrete marketable parts through which they become even more consumable and easier to mix into novel, delicious combinations, often across different sensory domains. These combinations could be unstable – as in actually plain dumb, dysfunctional, dangerous – because they did... See more

So, in shameless imitation of a master and tastemaker, here are my notes on “taste.”

1. To start very generally, taste is a mode. It’s a manner of interpretation, expression, or action. Things don’t feel tasteful, they demonstrate taste. Someone’s home can be decorated tastefully. Someone can dress tastefully. The vibe cannot be tasteful. The experien

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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

The conversation around taste tends to focus on what it takes to develop it, but not what it takes to use it and unlock its potential, which is confidence .

Having and developing taste is one thing, but remaining connected to our taste is another. In order to take advantage of our taste, we have to be able to access its insights and guidance, which ... See more