your own taste is why your work sometimes actually disappoints you.

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Here is the interesting thing when it comes to taste and output. We need to ask ourselves if they are related to each other and if they affect one another. This is a tough question because on one hand, someone whose taste is still developing is less likely to notice the rough edges in their work and will feel more free to release it, and in that sense, ignorance is a bliss.

Compared to that, someone who has developed taste in a field and understands the parameters will move more slowly, since they are able to notice the edges and have a repertoire to measure against. Yet this is not purely true, because someone who is deep in the game and has strong taste can quickly shift and change things to keep their output at the same rate, if not higher, so how do we truly measure it?

It could be that while your taste is developing, you start looking outward for guidance. You compare yourself to people who are not playing in the same field or at the same stage. At that point, the only comparison available is your work versus theirs, and early on that gap is almost impossible to close. Motivation becomes hard to sustain when it is built on that kind of comparison.

It is like a six year old learning to ride a bike while measuring himself against a professional cyclist, the comparison makes movement feel pointless.

As a byproduct of this, you start noticing rough edges everywhere. Often, unless the flaw is radical, you are the only one who sees it. In today’s media landscape, where content refreshes so fast, most people do not stop long enough to notice what disappoints you. Which raises the question of whether that disappointment is always real, or whether some of it exists only in your head.

If there is value in every situation, then maybe disappointment deserves to be read differently. What if the frustration comes from the fact that your taste has already moved past the level of work you are currently producing, while your technical ability has not caught up yet. In other words, you can see the next level clearly, but you cannot execute it fully. That gap explains almost everything.

Think of it linearly. That same kid grew up and became an NBA player. Over time, his taste for the game develops. He now cares about perfecting a fadeaway jumper. What does he do next. He studies Jordan, Kobe, players who mastered that move. He is not disappointed because he cannot do it yet. He understands that his taste is what allowed him to even want that level of precision. The missing piece is technical ability, not legitimacy.

Once you see it this way, the response changes. Instead of questioning whether you are good enough, you know what to work on. The same pattern applies to fashion, art, and music as well. Taste points forward, technique follows.

At this stage, the responsibility sits with the creator. Once you understand that taste is ahead of skill, the task becomes aligning the two. There is limited value in knowing everything about art if you cannot make it yourself. Knowledge alone can be fulfilling, but it is incomplete. The real shift happens when you start pushing your technical ability toward the same level as your taste.

Imagine being able to shape things exactly the way you want them. Deep cuts of Sade remixed to your own liking. A full collection you designed and brought to life. It becomes possible when taste and technique are allowed to move forward together, instead of one judging the other from a distance.