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Ask HN: What is taste? And how does one develop it?

5 points by HansHonitz ↗ HN
It's been frequently suggested here that the success of many businesses is because they are led by people who "have taste" (e.g. Steve Jobs, Mark Shuttleworth, Dieter Rams, etc.).

But what exactly does this "taste" represent? And what would it take for someone like me who probably doesn't have good taste to rectify this problem?

(If it requires good taste to even spot it in others, I think I may be out of luck.)

2 comments

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entangld
One cannot develop taste from what is of average quality but only from the very best. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Taste is the common sense of genius. -- Victor Hugo

wickedchicken
The best way I can describe taste is a gestalt quality where "every part of the thing jells." It's the ability to discriminate what is included vs. excluded. Often those with the most taste do not make these decisions obvious, this gives well thought out pieces an 'effortless' quality. As anything subjective, people have different opinions on it (I think Jobs makes a lot of tacky design decisions) but there is a universal thread of "thinking through the details."