Paul Graham's 2002 'Taste for Makers' resurfaces as the ultimate taste test for AI-era work
petesena · x · 2026-10-28
Borrowing Paul Graham's 14 principles of good design from his 2002 essay 'Taste for Makers', the author turns them into a checklist for judging AI output and AI-era brands. Highlights: good design is simple (cut the draft in half without losing the point), is redesign ('the one I'd tape to every screen' — Leonardo made five or six attempts at a single line), and is strange and daring. The core argument: most AI output fails because it lacks iteration and taste, and PG's principles work as a ready-made QA rubric.
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