I came to a realization recently.

One key difference between people I admire and people I don't is whether they demonstrate good taste.

My big realization? This holds especially true at work:

The people I enjoy working with the most typically demonstrate 'good taste' - and those I don't particularly like working with, typically don't.

This opens a can of worms! Isn't taste subjective? Wait - what even is taste?

I turn to Merriam-Webster:

Taste | noun
...
5a: critical judgment, discernment, or appreciation
b: manner or aesthetic quality indicative of such discernment or appreciation

This definition resonates:

• To be critical of something requires a level of care.
• To be discerning of something requires a level of attention.
• To be appreciative of something requires a level of openness.

All three are strengthened by qualities like thoughtfulness, intelligence, experience, and emotional sensibility.

On a fundamental level, taste seems to interact highly with intuition, both in having taste and judging taste.

As a rough framework, I think this works - hopefully enough to gather some insights.

My own taste

Before I go further, let me clarify: I'm not claiming to be an arbiter of taste, generally speaking. My recent music history includes 'lo-fi sonic the hedgehog remixes', and I've watched all 750+ videos by a man who makes sausages out of random things. I have enough self-awareness to acknowledge this.

But for my work, which is delivering software, I have enough accumulated knowledge & experience to feel justified claiming some authority in judging taste.

If I can assume the following statements are reasonable:

1. Taste is something that can be described and judged, if not entirely objectively
2. I can trust my own taste and judgment, if only where software is concerned

This leads me to ask: what is good taste at work, especially in software development?

What common characteristics do I see in myself and in those I work with that I tend to find tasteful?

(Dis-)Tasteful workplace behavior

Here's an attempt to catalog behaviors and see if useful patterns arise.

Manager me deciding what behavior is and isn't tasteful

Some behaviors I find tasteful in a software development workplace:

• Knowing when to say 'no' and how to say 'yes'.¹
• Selecting the appropriate communication method for the task or information at hand.²
• Relying on high-quality sources of information.
• Carving out time to be available.
  • Even better, without having to book a meeting.
• Taking extra effort to improve quality, even just a little bit ("leaving things better than you found them").
• Using the right tools for the job, and taking an effort to learn how to use those tools effectively.
• Knowing & respecting agreed ways-of-working.
  • Even better, knowing how to establish new ways-of-working respectfully.
• Making a reasonable effort to resolve an issue before asking for help.

Some behaviors I find distasteful:

• Being chronically 'busy' and out of touch.³
• Know-it-all-ism.
• Sloppiness.
• Closed communication.⁴
• Taking unnecessary risks to get something 'done'.
  • Even worse, breaking agreed ways-of-working to do so.
• 'Going rogue' by breaking agreed ways-of-working and team/org norms just to get something 'done'.
• Responding before having fully listened.
• Not recognizing & accounting for one's own weak points.
• Repeating the same mistakes over and over again (see above).
• Concealing issues.

I'm sure there are many, many more examples - I know this in fact, because I've been asking people for their thoughts all week 😄

Concluding thoughts

So, what can I take away from this?

For one, this model offers a fun little way to get perspective.

One interesting pattern: few of these apply to writing software specifically. As a firm believer in software being written by people, for people, I find it unsurprising that my choices are mostly about good collaboration - but still, perhaps my lists would differ if I'd drafted them back when I was a developer.

Developer me thinking good taste is mostly about writing testable code

I know I can't change others' behavior, but I can model the behavior I want to see. Looking at my lists and self-reflecting seems a good start - I can already see some I'm falling short on.

I'd caution against applying this frame of thought too liberally. There is value to diversity, also in behavior - to an extent. The behaviors I listed were meant to be clearly desirable or undesirable and fit the specific types of software development environments that I've worked in. Change the context or the example behaviors, and the usefulness & appropriateness of this model will change too.