On taste

Taste is the ability to recognize quality before you can explain why. It develops through exposure and reflection.

The gap

When you start any creative pursuit, there's a gap between your taste and your ability. You can tell that your work isn't good, but you can't quite articulate why, and you definitely can't fix it.

This gap is frustrating but necessary. It means your taste is ahead of your skills—which is the right order. If you couldn't tell the difference between good and bad, you'd have no compass for improvement.

Developing taste

Taste develops through exposure. Watch a hundred films and you'll start to see what makes cinematography work. Read a hundred essays and you'll sense when prose flows naturally.

But exposure alone isn't enough. You need active reflection. What specifically makes this work good? What would make it worse? What would make it better?

Trusting your reactions

Don't dismiss your gut reactions as unsophisticated. When something feels off, there's usually a reason. Your job is to figure out what that reason is.

Over time, you build a vocabulary for your instincts. What started as "this feels wrong" becomes "the pacing is uneven" or "there's too much visual noise."