The Taste-Development Loop
Taste isn't innate; it's a repeatable loop of reacting, interrogating, and building a point of view.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
A concrete practice for developing taste (a defensible point of view) rather than treating it as a gift. You cycle through having an experience, judging your reaction, asking why, studying the surrounding canon, and refining your own framework. Use it when you want to sharpen judgment in design, product, or any creative domain.
Origin
Asked what taste actually is and whether it can be learned, Field defined it as your point of view and described the loop he uses to build one, distinguishing the many people who can match a taste framework from the rare few (~0.01%) who create one.
Core principles
- 01Taste equals a point of view you can articulate and defend.
- 02Anyone can lean into it; strong preferences can be built, not just born.
- 03Judgment is inherent: taste means being willing to say some things are good and some bad.
- 04The best practitioners can toggle their own taste on and off to match a brief or brand.
How to run it
- 1
Have the experience and react
Expose yourself to something across any sense (art, music, food) and register your immediate response.
Pro tip Deliberately widen your inputs across mediums; cross-field connections sharpen taste fastest.
- 2
Ask like or dislike, and why
Do I like it or not, and why? Force the judgment and the reason rather than staying neutral.
- 3
Study the canon
Understand the greater context and the canon that led to this thing, so your reaction is informed by lineage.
- 4
Agree or disagree philosophically
Decide where you agree or disagree with the path that brought everyone to this point, forming your own stance.
- 5
Refine into a framework
Reflect and build an internal curatorial ability, revisiting past views and codifying a framework for what good means to you.
Pro tip Being willing to revisit and overturn your past judgments is what keeps taste growing.
Watch out Matching an existing framework is common; creating a genuinely new one is a rare (~0.01%) skill, so aim to build judgment, not to force originality.
In the wild
Field noted Figma's new chief design officer, and others with great taste, often came from another field first (music before design). The cross-field connectivity is, he argued, part of what produces strong judgment.
→ Reinforces the loop's emphasis on widening inputs across mediums to refine taste.
Common mistakes
Treating taste as fixed at birth
Some people start with stronger preferences, but the loop shows taste is trainable through deliberate exposure and reflection.
Refusing to make judgments
Taste requires being high-judgment and willing to call things good or bad; staying neutral prevents a point of view from forming.
Is it for you?
Best for
Designers, product builders, and creators who want to develop a defensible aesthetic point of view over time.
Not ideal for
Anyone seeking a quick checklist; this is a slow, compounding practice, not a one-time fix.
From the transcript
“It's just this loop of okay, I'm having an experience of any sense.”
“do I like it? Do I not like it? Why? Okay, now go further, you know, build your repertoire. Uh understand what is the greater…”
“a lot of people can basically match a framework not many people can create the framework.”
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Dylan Field