taste

Steve Jobs, on Microsoft:

The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste, and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their product.

Attend to your influences.
I suppose this is the ur-message - to be more aware of what’s influencing you and how. Acknowledge just how much of what you think, feel and do is picked up from others, consciously and unconsciously, and try to become more conscious of more of them. Artists pay attention to this because they love their influences, while a

Computer scientist and technology blogger John Gruber on quality:

"The quality of any creative endeavor tends to approach the level of taste of whoever is in charge."

Work on becoming more attuned to all your senses such that you can notice minute differences between things. Study all the little differences between similar things, and why you like one better than the other. The world wants you numb. Being a student of nuance is an act of rebellion.

-Kepano

From Ezra Klein:

AI might be able to churn out content faster than we can, but we still need a human mind to sift through and figure out what’s good. In other words, A.I. is going to turn more of us into editors. But editing is a peculiar skill. It’s hard to test for, or teach, or even describe. But it’s the crucial step in the creative process that