Essay
Taste is what's left
When execution becomes cheap and a hundred versions are possible, choosing what deserves to exist becomes a business advantage.
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01
Options
AI produces more plausible versions than anyone can use.
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02
Constraints
The real problem and its limits force decisions.
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03
Taste
A point of view rejects what does not carry weight.
When generation becomes almost free, the choices become the product.
Taste is not preference
For a long time, taste sounded like a luxury because execution was the expensive part. AI reverses the balance. When you can create ten versions before lunch and one hundred by evening, knowing which one should exist becomes operational.
Taste is not liking blue more than red. It is recognizing that one solution serves the human problem better than another, even when both technically work.
Solve the real mapping
Consider four stove burners arranged in a square and four control knobs arranged in a straight line. The row looks neat, but forces the user to remember which knob controls which burner. Place the knobs in the same square pattern and the problem nearly disappears. The second design is better because it solves the human problem, not the layout problem.
AI can solve the wrong problem beautifully. It can polish a dashboard when the user needs one number and one action, add competitive features when nobody understands the product, or make a landing page more professional when professionalism is exactly what makes it forgettable.
Subtraction reveals structure
Beginning creators add decoration because decoration feels like progress. Writers add larger words, designers add effects, founders add features, consultants add slides. Simplicity removes those hiding places. A short sentence needs a real idea. A product with three features needs each feature to matter.
Good taste often moves toward subtraction, but emptiness is not the goal. The goal is to remove what is not carrying weight and preserve what makes the object useful, memorable, and durable beyond the fashion of the moment.
Taste can be trained
Unlimited possibility is hostile to taste. Constraints force ranking, and ranking develops judgment. Study strong work and ask precise questions: what was removed, which action became easy, what information appears only when needed? Study weak work with the same seriousness.
AI makes surface copying cheap, so hidden reasoning becomes more valuable. Basic execution and polished English will no longer be enough differentiation. The advantage moves toward knowing what to build, how simple it can be, and which technically complete work must still be rejected.