Happy Thursday!

I went on Side Projects, the eponymous podcast from the strategy studio of Day One Agency, to discuss my recent GQ piece about Palantir’s streetwear-inspired merch. You can listen to that here or below. 

I have a few more thoughts on my main point from the podcast, which was that taste can only be cultivated through experience. A bit about that and other rapid fire trending topics below. Subscribe to the Yapper tier for the full newsletter. 

On Monday, I went to Jerry Saltz’s talk on his recent New York Yesteryear issue cover story about his ‘90s art world. You can see a version of this presentation on the magazine’s website here. I absolutely loved it and he said a lot of things that really resonated with me. But I think I was most struck by his constant emphasis on the subjectivity of art and, subsequently, criticism. 

In our brief time on this planet, our opinions, if we’re lucky, matter to some people, but they are ultimately not very important. Most do not stand the test of time. They aren’t definitive proof of anything nor are they Bible, for a lack of a better term. Still, criticism is useful in not only promoting critical thinking and healthy dialogue, but also for cataloguing a specific period. It is also helpful in helping us interrogate why we like the things we do or dislike the things we don’t. 

It is a strange paradox to exist in a culture that is currently obsessed with taste—with capturing this elusive and undefined thing—yet is simultaneously so averse to criticism. Everyone is in pursuit of taste but few really question what it means to do so, which is to say taste requires trial and error. You cannot appear cultured without putting in the work to experience culture.

That seems to be the disconnect for these tech bros chasing taste. I said on the Side Projects podcast that I think building your own taste requires you to live life offline, whether that’s going to shows or reading a book or watching a movie. Going out and figuring out what you personally enjoy isn’t something that a tech company can necessarily do for you, although they have certainly tried.