taste

Extrapolating from the premise of Aspirational Humanity, I’m proposing that charisma, not taste, may be the most covetable skill in the age of AI. Perhaps your aesthetic sensibility is irrelevant, as long as you can hold a great conversation. AI can style your outfit, but it’s not going to be a helpful wingwoman at the bar. As our external facades... See more

I mentioned that implicit conviction “comes from something deeper than the cause and effect we perceive in the unfolding of events.” What exactly is this deeper -something? My first attempt to answer this question happened spontaneously, over a decade ago: “Some companies have a soul,” I found myself saying to a friend over lunch, “others are just... See more

The problem you solve for customers is increasingly one they can’t even articulate for themselves . The ones that are easy to understand have already been built and funded over the last 20 years. Building something of true excellence will require a hungrier engagement with the world—and that will have to start with developing superior taste.

GenAI is just another source of “raw footage” (albeit a unique one) that is used to craft a story. But the “craft” part (the editing, the taste, the precision of timing and style) only becomes more important with the abundance of content and every brand flooding the zone. The “Hollywood vs. AI” narrative is a red herring. The world’s greatest... See more

In other words, she’d be someone who can break the rules with nonchalance because most of the time, she’s making them.

As images of any kind become easier to generate, the designers who stand out are those who can create a sense of cohesiveness and emotion.