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You Had No Taste Before AI

matthewsanabria.dev

121–130 of 201 posts

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#121
Not without irony that the author finishes with:

> The people succeeding with AI aren’t the ones who suddenly discovered taste. They’re the ones who already had it and simply adapted their standards to a new tool.

Which is just about the most blatant “it’s not about x it’s about y” tropes that AI writing is drowning in.

I do appreciate that they gave some concrete advice on how to curate taste…

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#122
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would make a number of great artists of history "tasteless".

A would agree with that for a number of well known artists often called great.

If I were to bet on whether the critical consensus or some random person on HN had no taste, I would certainly bet on the latter. This post reeks of "Am I wrong? No! It is the artists, critics, collectors, and community who are wrong!"

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#123
post #92

As someone who works with a lot of creatives, I've noticed people tend to get really defensive and self-righteous anytime "taste" comes up, on both sides - the haute designer-types vs. the scrappy I-can-do-it types. So I won't be surprised if this post is controversial. But it's insightful. Having poor taste (or more charitably, having no taste) can be covered up or ignored by the ability to choose from a pre-curated…

Like it or not, tastes change. Both the personal and society's tastes. If you look back through the past, you can see some horrid design choices. Thus, some designs we think as awesome right now, will be seen as horrid to our descendants. So if that's true, what if taste is social? And if it's social, then... well, all people have is peer pressure taste. And your words show the truth in this, to a degree. Pre-curated…

There seems to be an element of familiarity too. What was considered 'cool' when one is a teenager becomes an anchor of sorts. Even if society moves on, there will be a cohort who holds on to the era which made the deepest impression on them.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#124
post #92

As someone who works with a lot of creatives, I've noticed people tend to get really defensive and self-righteous anytime "taste" comes up, on both sides - the haute designer-types vs. the scrappy I-can-do-it types. So I won't be surprised if this post is controversial. But it's insightful. Having poor taste (or more charitably, having no taste) can be covered up or ignored by the ability to choose from a pre-curated…

Like it or not, tastes change. Both the personal and society's tastes. If you look back through the past, you can see some horrid design choices. Thus, some designs we think as awesome right now, will be seen as horrid to our descendants. So if that's true, what if taste is social? And if it's social, then... well, all people have is peer pressure taste. And your words show the truth in this, to a degree. Pre-curated…

I had taste before it was cool!

> It's all peer pressure, all social status.

You nailed it here. having 'taste' is a completely subjective concept driven mostly by the 'market-makers' of whatever industry. Your 'taste' is determined by the judgment of others.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#125
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI stuff is tasteless in a different sense: It's like food that has no flavor. It "lacks salt" in some non-literal sense. And I think that is not all that surprising, because much of what it was trained on was corporate-speak, which has the same problem.

I would argue the opposite, most of the AI slop I see is gaudy and overwrought, the result of too much flavour carelessly applied.

I agree. To me it feels like food with too many additives, like fast food.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#126
post #95
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colorblind have more issues distinguishing shades including shades of grade. These are made by people who see colors too well.

Or people who turn the brightness up on their monitor to "make the sun look dim in comparison". My TV has its backlight set to '0' (OLED, and a non-real property to set as no 'backlight', but still a metric). If I set it to 100 my eyes bleed. My current monitor with a real backlight has it set to 5. Yes, 5 out of 100. I think grey on grey works, if the very walls behind you are being bleached by the intensity of the…

And those monitors aren't any monitors, they're glossy expensive Apple monitors.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#127
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A would agree with that for a number of well known artists often called great.

If I were to bet on whether the critical consensus or some random person on HN had no taste, I would certainly bet on the latter. This post reeks of "Am I wrong? No! It is the artists, critics, collectors, and community who are wrong!"

There is no objective measure here. What i call good and bad is right for me and doesn't apply to anyone else-

wait - I though I was arguing for consensus here and everyone else was calling me wrong

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#128
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is there is a mindfuck dynamic the arena of taste brings. Popular taste can overwhelm all other taste. A society may not even know they’ve lost taste for a significant amount of time.

[flagged]

In what world are colourblind designers making grey-on-grey UIs? This is a wild statement, and this phrasing...

> You don't have to drag everyone to your level in the name of accessibility.

is gross.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#129
post #93
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that if you can't make a profit you have shown you are tasteless. If other people don't enjoy it enough to pay you, that says a lot about how out of step you are.

The "only thing that matters are money" ideology at its peak.

Money isn't all that matters but it is one of the few objective signs we have.

Re: You Had No Taste Before AI

#130
post #92

As someone who works with a lot of creatives, I've noticed people tend to get really defensive and self-righteous anytime "taste" comes up, on both sides - the haute designer-types vs. the scrappy I-can-do-it types. So I won't be surprised if this post is controversial. But it's insightful. Having poor taste (or more charitably, having no taste) can be covered up or ignored by the ability to choose from a pre-curated…

Like it or not, tastes change. Both the personal and society's tastes. If you look back through the past, you can see some horrid design choices. Thus, some designs we think as awesome right now, will be seen as horrid to our descendants. So if that's true, what if taste is social? And if it's social, then... well, all people have is peer pressure taste. And your words show the truth in this, to a degree. Pre-curated…

Some tastes change but not _all_ tastes change. This is a common misconception in conversations about taste: “some of it is subjective therefore it must all be 100% subjective and meaningless”. Yet when this comes round to something you’re good at (music, painting, literature, cooking, sport, …) you immediately recognize that there are in fact timeless elements. Universal truths, which are characterized as subjective only by those who cannot see it.

Elements of taste are subjective. Not all of it. You recognize this yourself in your own area of skill. Everyone has one area where suddenly they agree not every opinion has equal merit, and can articulate why.

But move out of that subject and into one of their blind spots, and we’re right back to “that’s just taste, taste is subjective, taste changes over time.”

Subjectivity is the refuge of the tasteless, who can afford to let others do our thinking for us. GP was right on point in that regard.

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