ML Researchers Spar Over What "Taste" Actually Means in Research
leothecurious · x · 2026-10-07
A spat over the definition of "taste": Dimitris Papailiopoulos (UW professor) dismissed leothecurious's definition with "that's... not taste". The latter's position: taste can be approximately represented as "efficiency in effort relative to output" — in engineering, where experiments are expensive and returns are objectively measurable, achieving phenomenal returns with fewer experiments is exactly what the industry calls taste, and what top-tier researchers are paid millions for. He invites debate over alternatives, otherwise this may be our best loose approximation yet.
Related event: ML Researchers Debate What Research 'Taste' Really Means(3 posts)→
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