Taste: First Draft

A personal observation on how “Taste” became a silent social luxury that couldn’t be purchased by throwing money at it

Introduction to Taste

Taste is a skill often times developed through consumption and comprehension patterns, for many it isn’t even an active choice, but rather a recommendation by their family or peers, many rappers in India often talk about that one sibling or friend who put them on Eminem, who introduced them to Kanye. But just consuming a piece of media does not develop taste in itself, taste is build when consumption is met with comprehension, many people take the lyrical part too literally often times complaining how they don’t UNDERSTAND the lyrics. But NO ONE understands something new in the first go, never, it only happens in the movies. Often times you have to stop your mind and focus.

When you know Ball

Ever since humans developed social living beyond survival and turned it into a society of competitions and comparisons for achieving a superficial superiority in their society, Materialistic accomplishments have often times stood as a surefire way to build a great first impression. However, accumulation of wealth doesn’t guarantee — accumulation of status. The social status formed by opinions of your observers eventually looks beyond your ability to purchase and starts looking at the quality of your purchase and in a large and interconnected generation like ours opinions are formed largely by comparisons.

Why do even I want to talk about this?

Up until recently a company I was working for got incubation from a micro VC where some of the most aspiring founders and teams worked in collaboration, I saw people working their ass off and delivering things that would take teams months of springs in an MNC but still when it came to credit, their appreciation were often done between closed doors and often times forgotten when something minor goes wrong. But then there were people who might have worked less than the former person would get 10x the appreciation. I was someone who was too aspirational to think about it but still reaped the benefits of getting that extra credit, sometimes even when the team put in more efforts in a sprint than me I would be addressed and praised for my contribution and I’m not downplaying my role, I have often time been there till 4AM in the office alone meeting deadlines.

This took me on a ride where I was meeting and having long conversations with people many would pay thousands for a 15 minute conversation. I knew what I wanted from these people, I wanted to see how they think so deeply and have build systems so productive making them so successful. But what did they see in me and other people like me? Why makes them interested in my opinions and the answer I landed on was “Taste”.