The Erosion of Taste in the Age of Mass Production
Why AI Won't Kill Creativity—Mediocre Humans Will
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Existential crises usually coincide with a significant life event. Whether it be a birthday (25, 30, 40, 50 etc), getting married or divorced, or in unfortunate circumstances maybe the passing of a loved one.
In 2024, knowledge workers, especially those in tech, endured an ongoing existential crisis with every new AI product that came to market, or feature release from Claude or OpenAI.
Naturally, these same tech workers sought to look for any bit of comfort possible, and inevitably landed on a very intangible concept in 'Taste'. It felt like most people (at least in my circles) started to think about how they could cultivate or even optimise their Taste. I even saw it crop up in a few quarterly goals lists.
When I asked these people about how they planned to 'Cultivate Taste', most of the responses back were to read widely beyond their immediate domain and to immerse themselves into the arts. Surely consuming copious amounts of Dostoevsky would improve their Taste right?
The irony here is so tragic. In a bid to optimise Taste, you end up killing any chance you have of developing it. Especially for those who work in tech, the first instinct when confronted with a challenge is to find the most optimal solution and then turn it into a reproducible process.
The truth here is that Taste is irreducible. It can't be summarised in a formula, nor can you maximise your 'Taste'.
It doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried to do so.
The uninspiring efforts of being 'Tasteful' lay all around us, with the world filled with both human and AI-generated slop that people are more than happy to consume.
A friend sent me the funniest example1 of this last week:
ReelShort is a consumer app that makes freemium vertical videos based on basic narrative tropes and storylines. Think of a terrible Netflix Christmas special, cut into 80, 1-minute clips where you can watch 10 for free and the rest are paywalled.
The leading titles on ReelShort include "Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas", "Baby Trapped by the Billionaire" and "Baby Daddy Goals". The videos are acted out by actual people and from watching about 10 error-filled minutes of "Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas" the script was probably written by a human.
There are two crazy things about this. Firstly, ReelShort is currently operating at a $300M run-rate and secondly, there are even more clones copying them and profiting from this phenomenon.
It points to a deeper problem where we’ve created a market that rewards pattern recognition over genuine understanding e.g., the 100s of fast fashion houses that exist, or the xth AI productivity startup. The more of these that 'work', the more that will be created and so on. It's scary to think that if we let this continue to happen, we'll literally be living in a flywheel of mediocrity.
Yet, Taste isn't universal. Nor is it binary. It goes hand in hand with community and context.
This isn’t developed by following playbooks or consuming recommended reading lists.
True Taste is the ability to transport ideas across domains and translate them into something new. It's Steve Jobs applying calligraphy principles to computer typography, or Ferran Adrià using industrial design techniques to reinvent cooking.
This works because real understanding transcends surface-level patterns. When you truly grasp why something works in one domain, you can see its potential applications in completely different contexts.
As my childhood chess coach used to tell me “You will never win by copying. The best you can do is reach a stalemate.” Copying fails when you don’t understand the underlying principle.
This kind of Taste isn't just about the recognition of quality, it's about seeing possibilities where others don’t. You can’t turn that into a formula.
So where does this leave us in 2025?
Will we see genuine Taste emerge or surrender ourselves to optimised mediocrity?
The greatest irony is that in our bid to optimise and quantify everything, we’re creating a way for AI to replace us more effectively. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw an AI clone of ReelShort tomorrow.
The real standout winners this year will be those who are deep thinkers and have a clear understanding of why something works. Indeed, AI can help you make these connections and help you understand things on a deeper level, but true Taste that leads to genuine innovation can’t be optimised.
I think taste is like trust. Hard to define but you know it and feel it when it’s there.
This essay made me think about finding out that Emily Kramer spends 30-40 hours on each newsletter. Seems like a crazy amount of time but it’s the only marketing newsletter I never miss and recommend to everyone. Deep thinking pays off.
This article is great. To me it’s like knowledge and wisdom. Anyone can learn something but it’s how they interpreted it, apply it and expand on it that creates wisdom. … anyone and eat, but taste is individual.