Taste Is a Skill

You can develop taste

People talk about taste like it's innate. You either have an eye for design or you don't. You either know good code when you see it or you're blind to it.

This is wrong. Taste is a skill, and like any skill, it can be developed.

The taste gap

Ira Glass described the gap between your taste and your ability. When you start, you can recognize good work but can't produce it. This gap is painful but essential — it means your taste is ahead of your skill, pulling you forward.

How to develop taste

Study the masters. Not just in your field. Read Tufte for information design. Study Braun for industrial design. Taste is cross-pollinated.

Articulate your reactions. When something feels right or wrong, don't stop at the feeling. Ask why. Develop a vocabulary for quality.

Create prolifically. You can't refine taste in the abstract. Make things, evaluate them honestly, make more things.

Taste in code

Good taste in code isn't about style guides or linting rules. It's about sensing when an abstraction is at the right level. When a function is doing too much. When a name doesn't quite capture the concept.

It's the difference between code that works and code that feels right.

Invest in your taste. It's the highest-leverage skill you can develop.