Taste for Makers

paulgraham.com

Art & Design

18 min read → 45 sec

An essay on why taste is not merely subjective and why good design shares recurring qualities across fields. It argues that simplicity, timelessness, right problem choice, revision, and exacting standards drive great work.

Good design has objective qualities, so taste can improve and be wrong

The same principles of beauty recur across math, engineering, writing, art, and design

The recipe for great work is very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it

Good design solves the right problem, not the most obvious or fashionable one

Good design is simple, because ornament often hides the absence of substance

Good design is timeless, because ugly solutions are eventually replaced by better ones

Appealing to people today and people in 1500 raises the odds of appealing in 2500

Good stove controls should match the burners' square layout, not sit in a row

Good design is suggestive, giving users basic elements they can combine as they wish

Good design is hard, and difficult constraints often force more elegant solutions

Good design looks easy, but that ease usually appears only after heavy practice and revision

Good design uses symmetry, especially recursion

Repetition can become a substitute for thought

Good design resembles nature, because nature has had a long time to solve similar problems

Good design is redesign, because experts expect early versions to fail and be replaced