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Good taste doesn't exist
Taste is a skill defined by curation and decision-making, not an innate gift, and generative AI threatens to atrophy this skill by automating choices.
What: Product strategist Ravi Mehta argues that creators must distinguish between craft, which AI now democratizes, and taste, which is the act of curation. He posits that relying on AI defaults—rather than exercising personal judgment through a 'frame, explore, critique' workflow—inevitably leads to low-quality, derivative output known as 'slop'.
Why it matters: As AI lowers the barrier to production, the competitive advantage for developers and creators shifts from the ability to execute (craft) to the ability to curate and define vision (taste).
Takeaway: Stop accepting AI-generated defaults. Instead, use AI to generate 10-20 distinct variations of an idea, then manually select and refine the one that aligns with your specific vision.
Deep dive
- Taste is the ability to make choices, while craft is the ability to execute them.
- Generative AI excels at craft, which democratizes creation but makes 'taste' more critical than ever.
- 'Slop' is defined as the accumulation of unexamined AI defaults, such as predictable rhetorical structures or generic design patterns.
- Developing taste requires active interrogation: comparing your personal reactions to the reactions of your target audience.
- The most effective creative workflow is: Frame, Explore, Critique, Explore again, Select, and Refine.
- A successful creator uses AI to widen the 'possibility space' while maintaining total control over final decision-making.
Decoder
- Slop: A derogatory term for generic, low-effort, or repetitive content produced by generative AI without human editorial oversight or distinct stylistic intent.
- Possibility Space: The entire set of potential outcomes or creative variations that can be generated for a specific project.
Original article
Taste is about making choices, and whether those choices are good depends on who they are made for.
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