What Is Taste, Really?

Jack Cheng distinguishes two forms of taste that AI discourse tends to conflate. Personal taste is the accumulated filter of preferences that forms your sense of self — quick, instinctive, and narrowing. Cultural taste (what is considered “tasteful”) is slipperier and status-bound, shaped by group norms and tastemakers. Cheng illustrates the interaction through his first job at a SoHo ad agency, where mimicking senior designers’ choices was both personal exploration and status seeking.

The argument matters for AI because as execution barriers drop, taste becomes the differentiator. But Cheng warns that taste is built through making things, not just consuming them — you have to articulate why you like what you like. The piece continues behind the paywall with a third definition of taste and the path to developing it.

RDCO mapping: Strong Sanity Check angle on the “taste as moat” thesis. The personal-vs-cultural distinction could frame a newsletter issue about why AI doesn’t replace judgment, it reveals who never had it. Cross-ref with curation and editorial voice work.