How to develop good taste?
Learn from David Rose, Raymond Reddington, and Remy the rat.
If someone who knows zilch about art, like me 🙈 stands before the Mona Lisa, they will appreciate its beauty. But no way close to how an art connoisseur would. The latter would appreciate the finer details that people like me can’t even see unless (hopefully) explicitly told. An art connoisseur has good taste in art. An oenophile has good taste in wine. A foodie has good taste in food.
Good taste is the ability to recognize and appreciate the finer details in a work of creativity.
I’m not sure if people are born with good taste. I do believe that good taste can be developed. Can anyone develop this ability? If yes, what can we learn from those who have good taste?
I don’t happen to know any art connoisseur or oenophile. When I hear the words “someone with good taste”, three fictional characters pop up in my mind. Let’s see what we can learn from them. Please bear with me my taste in TV series and movies!
Daringly himself — David Rose
The first character is David Rose from the TV series, Schitt’s Creek. He has good taste in design and aesthetics.
People in the small town he moved into made fun of his weird sense of style. None of that mattered to him. He was unapologetically himself. His opinions were deeply intrinsic and he truly believed in them.
He eventually sets up his own boutique and is looked upon by the same people for advice on fashion and style.
If we could nail one thing that helped him succeed, that’d be his discerning beliefs unshakable by others’ opinions.
It’s not to be confused with stubbornness. If you are stubborn, you won’t change your views because you don’t want to lose to others. If you are darlingly yourself like David, you won’t change your views because you have clarity about the nuisances that others fail to notice.
Sometimes, this amount of clarity is a result of deeply rooted interests, as in the case of David. At other times, this amount of clarity results from a vast array of experiences, as in the case of our next fictional character.
Driven by experiences — Raymond Reddington
For someone with good taste in wine, people, and life in general, the character that comes to my mind is Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington from the TV series, The Blacklist. He is a highly intelligent and charming criminal mastermind.
He has the ability to gauge complex situations and be three steps ahead of everyone. It seems like he’s been to every place on Earth you can imagine. He’s friends with creative minds all over the world. He’s lived a life full of adventure.
It would be fair to assume that his good tastes are a result of a life rich in experiences.
Having a resume with a vast array of experiences is key to landing good taste. I can’t claim to have good taste in food if my palate hasn’t experienced anything beyond my home country’s cuisine. I can’t claim to have good taste in coffee if all I’ve ever had is instant coffee.
People who are rich are known to value experiences more than gifts. They are known to travel a lot. Traveling helps one experience different kinds of foods, cultures, people…it’s no wonder then that more often than not, rich people have good tastes.
Those who are struggling to pay the bills can’t afford to have all kinds of experiences because that costs time, money, or both.
A tweet by Orange Book reflects on one big benefit of being rich, that is, the ability to experiment.
Just like it’s a good idea for children to develop a reading habit, it’s a good idea to develop good tastes early on.
I’m not saying you can’t develop good tastes if you aren’t rich. You might need to try a little harder just like our next fictional character.
Practice fueling passion — Remy, the little chef
For someone with good taste in food, I always think of Remy from Pixar’s animated movie, Ratatouille. He has a passion for food. He dreams of becoming a professional chef in spite of his BIG limitation — he’s a rat 🐀
Although he has a strong sense of smell, better than any other rat in his clan, he doesn’t stop there. He’d be constantly learning, discovering new tastes, trying to improve food by combining tastes together.
Whether he was living in an attic with other rats or sharing an apartment in Paris with a human, he constantly kept on fueling his passion with practice. He consistently worked on improving his cooking skills.
Just because you are passionate doesn’t mean you’ll pull through. You need a system in place to take home your passion. Practise is that system.
If a little rat can overcome its limitations, we can develop good tastes by constantly improving in our area of interest.
Your passion gives you an advantage. When the going gets tough, it’s the passion that will keep you going. The opposite also holds true. If you force yourself to pick work that doesn’t interest you, you won’t go beyond what is minimally expected out of you. You won’t care to dig any deeper or discover the unknowns.
To develop good taste, pick something that you are deeply interested in and fuel it with practice, just like Remy, the rat. Gain a range of experiences around it, just like Raymond Reddington. While you’re at it, don’t get biased by the opinion of others, just like David Rose.
