Doc Searls, in his talk at Reboot8, mentioned this 10 year old clip of Steve Jobs lambasting Microsoft for not having any taste. It’s a great clip because, as Doc mentioned, he really nails Microsoft, but at the same time, he nails himself, in that Steve Jobs had at the time nothing but taste. There’s also A New Brand World, which similarly nails Microsoft as having no heart, and thus being unbrandable, it’s essentially the same thing.
The quote stuck with me, because taste is so critically important to me in my life. Taste as in caring about more than just the functional value of things, caring about the emotional value, about beauty, culture, about all the things a piece of food, clothing, software product, writing, or music says about the values of the creator. I could probably live with not being the richest person alive, in exchange for a little taste.
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