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Ray Dalio once sent an email to half of Bridgewater that said “Christina Ducruet doesn’t have taste.”Needless to say, I have thought a lot about this matter 😅. My favorite and most guiding reflection on taste and how it develops comes from Ira Glass, which I’m sure some have seen – https://youtu.be/91FQKciKfHI?si=t9uacHoXUBX2Xqjc

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Christina!! I MUST know more about this Ray Dalio email!!!!!!

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“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.”

Ira Glass

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Absolutely !!!! Taste is just what you like and doing it / wearing it / watching it / reading it / diving into and developing it without looking outside of yourself for approval or esteem …. I think someone has incredible taste when i see them so freaking in their element it just shines through. Not sure if that made sense - just my two cents !

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I think taste is like a muscle. Just like you go to the gym to gain muscle, just like reading helps the brain improve attention span, taste is very much like that. You have to actively exercise analysis + understanding of art to really sift through what you believe is “good” and “bad”.

I really enjoyed the read, thank you for this!

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