Having good taste is about being able to tell the difference between good and bad work.
Being able to tell if a song will be a hit or not is good taste.
Being able to tell if a book is a Pulitzer candidate or not is good taste.
Starting something new, like a new career, a YouTube channel, or a blog, and saying to yourself “this could be better” is a sign of good taste.
Don’t be discouraged whenever you recognize that your work isn’t quite good yet.
It means you have good taste.
It means you know the work has the capacity to be better even if you can’t put your finger on how to make it better yet.
It means you’re playing the right game.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”