Steve Jobs, Rick Rubin and "taste" \ stacker news ~culture

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Steve Jobs, Rick Rubin and "taste"www.readtrung.com/p/steve-jobs-rick-rubin-and-taste

1095 sats \ 19 comments \ @k00b 16 Jan culture

I've always enjoyed Trung's writing since I first encountered it in The Hustle. He's funny and respects attention scarcity. More recently he made me aware of this Rick Rubin clip which is polarizing in the best way; Rubin claims he has no skill other than being exceptional at being himself.

Trung finds similarities between Rubin's understanding of taste from his book on creativity and Jobs' from the Steve Jobs Archive. Both describe taste as fundamental to their success yet "straightforward" and accessible to anyone.

The first thing that came to mind was that the modern world feels utterly tasteless at a time when we have more tools and time than ever to express ourselves. So if developing taste is something we can all do, then why haven't we? I only have half thoughts right now, but I suspect taste is an act of rebellion and hyper-connectivity makes conforming easier and stronger without giving similar powers to rebels.

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608 sats \ 1 reply \ @frostdragon 16 Jan

Reminds me of a great quote I found a while back:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

TL;DR - It's less about developing taste, and more about developing the skills to manifest your creativity.

There's another idea I heard from a drummer - (Ben Sesar):

Technique (skill) is about diminishing the friction between the physical and the emotional/creative (aka, your taste).

The better you get at your skill, the more "honest" your art will be. The ideal is, your "technique" is such that it seamlessly communicates what's in your head. The more sophisticated your technique, the sophisticated things you'll be able to communicate with your art.

The incredible thing about Rick Rubin is, his "skill" is basically just people. The dude just knows how to work and communicate with creatives.

425 sats \ 0 replies \ @frostdragon 16 Jan

To add to this a bit:

Personally, my opinion is less that people don't have taste, and more that people don't develop creative technique.

That's one of the reasons I'm not all that hyped about AI, specifically when it comes to "facilitating creativity". On the one hand, it's a great, easy to use tool that might make it easy for people to communicate their art and demonstrate their taste without having to spend the time on the skill.

On the other hand... It could have the complete reverse effect over time, since skills aren't being developed like they used to. And that's kiiiiinda what I think is more likely. At least for most people. Especially if there's a feedback loop of bad art, where AI thinks bad art is good because it becomes more and more common.

PLUS.... I tend to think that since AI is only building off things that already exist, it hurts the creative process more than it helps. I think something happens in our brains when we try to come up with something new that will simply never be emulated by AI. But of course the counter-argument to that is... There is nothing new - we're all just synthesizing stuff that's already out there. But that's a different topic....

141 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury 16 Jan

It's funny, this question of what it means to be real, or authentic.

A thing I've noticed over the last few years is how much power there is to just being present for things. Which sounds so dumb to say! But jesus, it is a giant thing. You can practice it with no fanfare, it takes no setup, but man, you feel it. It's like a radiating heater that's on vs off.

I wonder how much of that's what Rubin does -- brings that presence to when he's doing whatever he's doing. Over a career of doing so, you become a god.

139 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 16 Jan

There's something strange about my own conception of "good taste". Good taste is hard to measure. You can't measure it by what's the most popular, or what makes the most money. Think McDonalds, or Marvel Movies. Are those good taste?

And yet, I know something tasteful when I see it. And, somewhat magically, lots of people seem to agree. with me.. despite it not being the most popular and widely consumed thing.

Really makes me wonder. Never heard of Rick Rubin, but now i'm intrigued.

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 17 Jan

I know the name Rick Rubin but I still don't know why he is famous.

update: American record producer, co-founder Def Jam recording

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 17 Jan

He did a long interview on a podcast recently, but forgot which one.

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ge 17 Jan

Interesting take I think if ur born with it ur born with it can you develop it sure i think its more of a feeling idk my 2 sats

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @LowK3y19 16 Jan

You crazy for this one Rick

0 sats \ 10 replies \ @NovaRift 16 Jan

deleted by author

105 sats \ 9 replies \ @k00b OP 16 Jan

It also requires not using AI to think, wouldn't you agree?

0 sats \ 8 replies \ @NovaRift 16 Jan

But I didn't use any AI. It's just Grammarly that corrects my sentences 🤷.

Edit: I deleted that comment in case you felt like that was AI generated.

0 sats \ 7 replies \ @k00b OP 16 Jan

I guess it's hard for me to tell where you begin and Grammarly ends. I'm curious - can you share what the comment was like before grammarly helped? I think I'd prefer reading bad grammar in a real person's voice - but I don't know without a direct comparison. Maybe I'm full of it.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 16 Jan

I didn't see the original post. What made it seem AI generated to you?

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b OP 16 Jan

It was hard to find the thoughts in all the words. It also mostly read like a distorted echo of what I wrote.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 16 Jan

I've accused students of using AI and they claimed to use grammarly. I'm not sure how to fight this battle

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @NovaRift 16 Jan

It's very simple; I'm also a student, and my professor questions everything about our work if he thinks it was AI generated.

I'm not sure how to fight this battle

I wouldn't call it a battle, though; he's a creator of Stacker News, and I would not escalate anything with him. If I was wrong; I would not have replied to him back.

reply on another page

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @NovaRift 16 Jan

This time no grammarly!

I just meant like.. developing real taste takes slowing down and actually thinking for yourself. But now everything’s so instant and already picked for us it is hard to do that. So yeah, maybe having real taste is kinda rebellious now, cause you gotta ignore what’s popular and do your own thing.

By the way, I am sure you use Twitter, and this is why it makes you frustrated to see AI-generated texts.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 16 Jan

I don't know why twitter is to blame.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @NovaRift 16 Jan

I just said it because whenever I use Twitter now, it feels like everyone has used some AI to create tweets. It has made an impact that when I see a text, I can tell it's generated solely by AI. Here too, I saw one account only using AI-generated answers to reply. I still apologize if you thought I created that comment only from AI.