Create · Lesson 1 of 2

Taste is a skill you can build

The more options there are, the more valuable it is to know which one is right.

5 min read · Free — no account needed to read

Taste is the ability to tell what is good, what is right for this moment, and what is merely fine. It is not magic; it is built by paying close attention to a lot of work and asking why some of it works.

When anyone can generate a hundred logos, a hundred essays, a hundred melodies, the scarce thing is the person who can say "this one — and here is why."

Build it deliberately: collect examples you love, write one sentence on what makes each work, and notice what you keep choosing. That pattern is the start of your point of view.

See it happen

You generate thirty logo options for a friend’s shop in a single afternoon.

The read that arrives on its own

Pick whichever looks nicest at first glance and send it over.

The same situation, with this idea

You put four side by side and make yourself write one line on each. Three of the lines turn out to be about polish. The fourth says "this one looks like the kind of place that remembers your order". You send that one — and you can say why.

What changed

Choosing happened in both versions. Writing the reason is what turned a preference into something you can repeat, defend to the shop owner, and apply to the next thirty options in ten minutes instead of another afternoon.

The takeaway

The more options there are, the more valuable it is to know which one is right.

Easy to take the wrong way

Believing taste means preferring difficult or unusual work. It means being able to say what a piece of work is for and whether it does that — which is very often the plainest option in the set.

Try this

Save five things you think are excellent this week and write one line on why for each.