What do I know about taste?
I just know I have it.
It emerges from everything we are: what we read, watch, think, buy, eat, live, love, and feel. It's the raw expression of our identity, and that's exactly why taste matters so damn much in a world drowning in sameness.
But here’s the thing: I think we’ve lost it. We've traded genuine discernment for the comfort of conformity, the easy acceptance of whatever's being presented to us as "good" or "beautiful" this season.
We’re left with the relentless urge to placate and pander.
Here’s a good example.
Visual trends spread like wildfire. Everyone’s working off the same Pinterest board. Beige branding. Brutalist websites. Bold vintage colours. “Aesthetic” now means: looks like something that’s already been liked. We’ve been conditioned to co-sign, not question. How often do any of us actually stop to ask: Do I actually like this? Or do I just like that everyone else likes it?
Why does everything look and feel the same?
Why is nothing special anymore?
Why is everything forgettable?
This collapse of taste has an obvious culprit: capitalism's obsession with mass appeal. The logic is simple. More people liking = more people buying. Brands and big corp have systematically expanded their reach by convincing us that popularity equals quality, that the majority defines what's desirable.
Even micro-trends, those supposedly niche, fleeting flashes of taste, are caught in the same loop. What starts as distinct is devoured by the algorithm and before you know it, everyone’s doing their version of “that thing.” The moodboard industrial complex strikes again. The democratization of information hasn't liberated our taste, it's made it all… the same.
I don’t think people have lost their taste. I think we’ve just stopped trusting it. We’ve forgotten how it feels to trust our judgment.
So what is taste, really? Taste is a gut-level, good-faith, full-body yes or no. It’s your ability to look at something and feel, instinctively, that it’s for you. Or very much not. Taste is dissent. Taste is individual rebellion. Taste is a sensibility that lives in textures and subtleties. Taste operates from your values, not borrowed ones. And genuine taste requires the backbone to say "no" when everyone else is saying "yes."
Taste remains challenging precisely because it demands that you know yourself. And maybe, just maybe, the pursuit of taste is also a pursuit of belonging. Not the kind that requires you to fit in, but the kind that reminds you who you are.
Field Notes for Re-training Good Taste:
- Hone your instinct. Taste is visceral before it’s cerebral. If you feel it, follow it.
- Learn to dissent. “This isn’t for me” is a complete sentence.
- Scout for signals. Practice the art of discovery, and to differentiate inspiration from replication.
Taste is defiantly personal. It’s not about liking what’s liked—it’s about liking what’s you. Let’s start there.