How to Develop Taste

Everyone’s talking about developing taste. In an age of AI and TikTok, where tasks are instantly duplicable and everyone has access to the same Pinterest boards on capsule wardrobes, taste has become the ultimate differentiator. It helps us make decisions when presented with limitless choices and, overall, create a life that is ultimately ours, versus one that is dictated by the algorithm.

Taste is ultimately shaped by a mix of curiosity and stubbornness, push and pull. Taste means we are highly interested in everything the world throws at us, but we don’t digest it wholesale. We put our spins on it and ultimately create something new.

I don’t believe I have good taste. Not in the “Mozart-and-Chanel” sense that’s conjured up when we say “good taste”. But I like what I like. And knowing what I like stamps my unique blueprint onto everything I create.

Part #1 of Good Taste: Lean Into Your Lore

Is your favorite snack mayo with peanuts? Maybe you were brought up without a TV? Maybe you hate traveling.

We all have those opinions that the world around us considers just so slightly…off. You know the ones: you voice them, and the volume of the conversation suddenly changes to either deafening silence or a cacophony of noise filled with arguments.

Whatever those opinions, stories, or histories are, lean into them. It’s all part of your story and who you are and, ultimately, part of your taste. Own your lore and have fun with it.

Part #2 of Good Taste: Ignore the World for A Little While

We are inundated with messaging. There’s social media and advertising now, in addition to the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses that’s been around forever. There’s so much noise around what we SHOULD like that we barely have a chance to discover what we DO like.

So, for some time, ignore the world. Disable social media. Don’t read a single self-help book. If possible, try a whole no-media day. Don’t look at anything anybody likes. Keep your blinders on.

Start with a day. Then a week. In the absence of outside voices, where does your curiosity flicker? And if nothing is interesting, nothing is interesting. But at least you’ll know that you, yourself, find nothing interesting, versus pretending to like a whole bunch of things other people love.

Part #3 of Good Taste: Create Something Small

If something did interest you in your “Ignore the World” phase, create something that follows up on that curiosity. It could be tiny - a paint swatch that imitates the colors you see in the sky at sunset or a journal entry. Or go all the way - maybe a set of 10 dinner recipes with a Pineapple & Pomegranate theme.

Whatever has made a voice even whisper “hmmmm” inside of you - explore that. Create something with it. Just put it down somewhere so you can say, “hey, look! I put my personal stamp out there in the world.”

Part #4 of Good Taste: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

This is annoying to most people I know, but I listen to songs on loop. Freshman year, a classmate came over to my room to borrow my notes. She came to return them two days later. During a lull in the conversation, she said, “hey, wasn’t this song playing two days ago?”

Repetition of the smallest pieces builds up to something bigger. When you watch your favorite movie on repeat, you start noticing minuscule details - camera angles, wardrobe choices, lighting decisions. Then you start connecting how those tiny parts make up the whole of the movie you love. Bingo! You’ve discovered what you like! You have discovered your taste!

Then you move on to a different movie. You begin noticing more things you like. Ultimately, you have watched enough movies on repeat that if or when you make your own movie, it’s chock-full of your unique taste - the mishmash of things you have sat with, and noticed, and loved.

Do you like a song? Don’t rush to listen to more by the same artist. Sit with the song. What notes are interesting to you? What, even in that favorite song, sounds jarring to the ear? Get intimately familiar with it.

The same is true of books! And clothes! And architecture! And literally anything you like. Next time you like something, really go all in on it and learn why you like it so much.

Part #5 of Good Taste: Do the Artist’s Way

Ugh, I hate being such a cliché, but yes, do the Artist’s Way. It’s a great guide for leaning into yourself versus the Internet for your opinions.

You don’t have to do the whole thing at once. Do it in the chunks that work for you. I ended up reading the whole book and doing the morning pages, then working in the artist’s dates, and only now am I working on the journal prompts. It’s not a race; taste is a lifelong habit.

Taste doesn’t have to be stuffy or boring or “correct”. It’s taste - a reflection of you and the life you’ve lived. It just has to be real and true and authentic.

Raising a toast,

Simran

P.S. Here’s a piece from The Atlantic on taste!