On taste and craft

Our dining table is made out of solid oak. With its triple matte-coated finish, 45-degree bevels, and rounded ends, it matches the quality of my MacBook resting on it. As I touch the table, I feel its smooth surface, and as I type on my laptop, I hear the subtle sounds the keys make. The table and the laptop feel just right, the way their creators intended. I sense the attention, skill, and time invested in the craft required to build these items. These items were crafted by people with good taste.

The same is not true for everything. Why do some tools, furniture, appliances, and software lack that just right feeling? What constitutes quality anyway?

It all boils down to taste.

Link to this headingTaste

I suspect there are as many definitions of taste as there are people, but here's mine: Taste is the ability to distinguish quality. Someone with good taste can discern the feel, look, or function of a given thing. I think about taste in four levels:

1. Inability to differentiate ("What's the difference?")
2. Ability to differentiate, but not why ("Something's off here")
3. Ability to differentiate and recognize part of the layers ("The heading hierarchy is off")
4. Ability to differentiate and recognize all of the layers ("In this context, the color combinations with the heading levels and the whitespace are not aligned properly")

The gap between levels is non-linear: It's easier to get from level one to two than from two to three, let alone from three to four. Level four requires a tremendous amount of work and a deep understanding of a given topic.

All this begs the question: How to develop taste?

Link to this headingDeveloping taste

The first step is to start observing. Go to museums and absorb the pieces of art. Search for the best books of all time and read them. Look for the best movies and watch them. Slowly but steadily, you'll notice that you're able to tell a beautiful movie from the dull. The spot-on typography from the almost-there version. The smooth line quality from the chaotic one. The just right order of words from the confusing. The carefully crafted layers of detail from a mixed bag of styles. Behind every underdeveloped taste is a lack of exposure.

For some, this observatory step is enough. Not every movie critic, product manager, or CEO needs to be a producer of the things they have a good eye for.

That said, learning to produce is a helpful next step to improve taste. Spend time and effort on something you're curious about. Find the best in your field. Study their words, lines, colors, textures, and sounds. Copy them until you understand why their work feels the way it does.

Just be sure you learn from the best. What you get is what you repeat.

Link to this headingCraft

In the mid nineties, I remember the magical feeling of getting hold of Photoshop on my father's laptop. I tried all sorts of effects (plastic wrap, anyone?) and managed to conjure some wild visuals to say the least.

A bit later, the same happened with Blender. And then with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With curiosity, inclination, and time, these experiments became the early steps toward my future craft.

The more I experiment and tinker with something, the more I begin to see what affects its quality—and how far I am from where I want to be. This was especially true with Blender: I could see the results others were creating, and felt the gap between my work and theirs in my gut.

But instead of being set back, I doubled down. I kept on going.

Here's the thing: Draw a cat, and your first attempt will most likely not impress yourself, or anyone else, for that matter. Draw 1,000 cats, and you might have something reminiscent of a cat. Draw 10,000 cats, and you have a craft.

People with taste and craft have always existed, but in the age of AI, they're even more relevant. AI has lowered the barrier to entry for creation and increased the average quality of output. As work is increasingly handed over to agents, people who can review the output and make decisions stay relevant. People with good taste. People who built our oak table and MacBook.

People who know what feels just right.