#17 - Taste Over Tools

Steve Jobs couldn’t build a Macintosh, or an iPod, or an iPhone. But he had the impeccable taste to realize that those things were worth building.

What you choose to build is so much more important than your ability to build it. That’s why the non-technical Steve Jobs is the world’s most-revered tech founder.

And it’s why I’m so uncertain about Apple’s future. They have the best collection of engineering talent on the planet and can build anything they choose, but what they choose to build isn’t all that exciting. We just don’t feel as much magic holding new Apple products as we did when Jobs was around.

I see this play out several times in several places. The secret sauce in most success stories is the leader’s taste, not the team’s technical ability.

John Lasseter co-founded Pixar, directing classics like Toy Story and stewarding several others as their Chief Creative Officer. Pixar movies have lost a lot of their charm since he departed in 2017. John had great taste in stories.

Will Guidara took over the restaurant Eleven Madison Park as general manager and transformed it from a good restaurant into the #1 restaurant in the world on the “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list. He had great taste in hospitality.

Rick Rubin co-founded Def Jam Recordings. He discovered and championed artists like LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, helping to bring them to prominence. He had great taste in music.

I’ve become a pretty good engineer over the past few years, and with the gift of AI, the list of things I can reasonably build is virtually endless. But just because I can build something doesn’t mean it’s something worth building.

2 years into having ChatGPT, and I’ve learned that AI can make the work faster, but it can’t make the work better. Only great taste in what to work on can do that.

That’s the journey I’m on now: to develop impeccable taste. Expect to see more writing from me on that

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See you next week — Rayhan

P.S. Is there such thing as good taste? is my absolute favourite Paul Graham essay. Check it out!