On Taste
I think Mykala found dooce.com via kottke.org a few years back, and I just realized something about why I like the site so much. You see, dooce (a.k.a. Heather Armstrong) has a hilarious writing style regardless of subject (dog, husband, daughter, et al.), great photography, and a devoted community… but that doesn’t really get at the essence. That essence is: Heather has unbelievably good taste.
From decorating to art to music, the woman just knows how to pick ‘em. These qualities are certainly exemplified in her latest post about NPR’s Bryant Park Project. I mean, I started reading the summary of that show and immediately thought “this is awesome.” And it’s not awesome in the general subjective sense of appealing to one’s particular interests or sensibilities (though it certainly does) — no, dooce’s recommended show is awesome because of the way it pushes the boundaries on traditional radio media, features smart hosts, and covers topics ignored by other shows. Anyhow, this idea of “good taste” reminds me of a quote from Steve Jobs:
The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And what that means is, I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean it in a big way. In the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their product. And you say, well, why is that important? Well, proportionately spaced fonts come from typesetting, and beautiful books. That’s where one gets the idea. If it weren’t for the Mac, they would never have that in their products. And so I guess I am saddened, not by Microsoft’s success. I have no problem with their success. They’ve earned their success… for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just really make third rate products.
When you’ve a public product like Apple’s iPod or dooce.com, taste is everything. Plus, these days there isn’t just one Microsoft but a veritable ocean of mediocre tasteless drudgery (into which I sometimes contribute) in crap-tastic blog format. Too few voices online are islands above that ocean, which is what makes those voices all the more valuable. In short, dooce kicks all kinds of tail, and does it with an exceedingly rare quality which we can only sum up with one word: Taste.
Comments
Shayla
I totally agree. Heather B. Armstrong is my hero, and I am completely addicted to <dooce.com>