Well-known incubator Y Combinator founder Paul Graham previously made a prediction: in the age of artificial intelligence, taste will become even more important. When anyone can create anything, the true distinction lies in what you choose to make. Coincidentally, recent remarks from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman also state that taste is a new core skill. What exactly do these two influential figures mean by "taste," and why is it considered a core value in the AI era?
Everyone is smart, but not everyone has good taste
In a 2002 blog post, Paul Graham quoted Thomas Kuhn, author of The Copernican Revolution, saying: "One important reason Copernicus rejected the Ptolemaic system was that he could not accept its aesthetic 'equal distances'." He also referenced G. H. Hardy in A Mathematician’s Apology: "Beauty is the first criterion: ugly mathematics has no permanent place in this world."
He recounted a conversation with a friend teaching at MIT, who said he receives many applications from students each year. He noted, "Many seem very smart, but I can't tell if they have taste." He wanted students who weren’t just technically skilled but could use their knowledge to design beautiful things. Today, with AI flourishing, Paul Graham and Greg Brockman’s opinions redefine "taste" as a core value of the AI age.
Is taste subjective?
Many people say, "Taste is subjective." This is because in daily life, judgments often stem from unexamined emotions:
Like → because they saw a celebrity use it
Think it’s good → because it’s expensive
Dislike → because they’re unfamiliar
In such cases, it seems like:
"Everyone likes different things, so taste is subjective." But the author points out that this is just immature taste, not taste itself. Any work, people want to improve it. If your job is design and beauty doesn’t exist, then you have no standard for progress. If taste were purely subjective, everyone’s taste would already be perfect. But in reality, as experience accumulates, your taste changes. Since it can improve, it means there are differences in quality—taste isn’t purely subjective.
Experts tend to reach consensus, and if you observe carefully, standards often align across fields. For example: simplicity over complexity, clear structure over decoration, solving real problems over superficial prettiness, timelessness over trendiness. These are not personal preferences but cross-disciplinary quality principles. Market and time are also ways to validate taste—truly good designs are usually timeless, repeatedly referenced, and stand the test of time. If taste were entirely subjective, there would be no classics, theories, or enduring products.
In the AI era, "taste" is the ability to decide what to do
Within the context of Paul Graham and Greg Brockman’s statements, the meaning of taste isn’t just the ability to judge good or bad. It’s the ability to decide "what to do" in a world of "limitless production." AI greatly accelerates productivity, so this ability to decide "what to do" becomes a crucial skill.
Paul Graham’s logic: When anyone can make anything, the differentiator is what you choose to make.
In this context, "taste" means the ability to judge:
Which problems are important?
Which needs are genuine?
Which directions have long-term value?
In the Vibe Coding era, many people think AI is powerful, and they just combine AI with XXX. But people with taste will consider: what is the real bottleneck in this field? Not just for AI’s sake.
This is also a form of choosing taste—AI causes options to explode, but what’s truly scarce is the ability to abandon, to focus. How to do less but do it precisely. Not chasing trends, not making "impressive but meaningless" things. Even if AI can generate content,
Which version has insight?
Which narrative is compelling?
Which product has soul?
Which just feels like a template?
AI can generate, but it cannot decide what is worth existing.
This article, "Taste" as a Core Skill in the AI Era! Even if you know how to use AI, lacking taste will lead to elimination. Originally published on Chain News ABMedia.
