Cultivating taste

Taste isn't some mysterious gift bestowed at birth—it's simply what happens when you pay close attention to what moves you.

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.

As we drown in AI-generated content, the person who can confidently say "this, not that" becomes invaluable when everyone else is paralysed by too many choices.

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 vector for belonging — a path out of isolation and shame. Sharing what you’re reading, watching, and listening to brings the moths to the flame.

I’ve come to believe that developing taste is not so unlike going to therapy; it’s an inefficient, time-consuming process that mostly entails looking inward and identifying whatever already moves you.

when execution becomes trivial, direction becomes essential.