The curse of taste | Adam Hutchinson

May 26, 2026<br>The curse of taste

Gmail’s header icons are super inconsistent. Some hover states animate, others don’t. Even the backgrounds differ slightly.

It’s subtle and almost invisible, but it’s there. Just enough to feel vaguely wrong.

If you haven’t spent time building products or designing things, you might not notice at all. Even if you have, you could argue that it doesn’t matter. A couple of inconsistencies seem meaningless, but enough stacked on top of each other make a thing feel shoddy. Lacking in delight. Missing the mark. Falling short of potential.

It’s easy to excuse too. Almost certainly at Google-scale, team alignment is a huge challenge. And most places don’t optimize for delight. The incentives force things a different way.

But it still misses the polish of taste. And those of us with the curse of taste notice.

It’s the same with many things. Once upon a time I would drink instant coffee. Then I tasted a truly great flat white. Now instant coffee does nothing for me. Somewhere along the way, I ended up with an expensive espresso setup at home. That’s an expensive curse, and I can’t go back. The ruthless progression of taste only goes in one direction. Walk the path and earn the decision.

Taste is irreversible — and it begets sensitivity.

It adds friction where there once wasn’t any.

That’s the entrance price.

I have an old Mazda MX5 with a turbo. It’s raw. It’s fun. When Mazda developed the MX5 (Miata or Eunos to some of you), their philosophy was Jinba Ittai which translates to “horse and rider as one”. The car is incredibly responsive to every input, feeling like an extension of the nervous system. Now, most other cars don’t really hit the mark. They don’t match up. I bought the ticket and took the ride.

It cuts both ways. It raises the floor for disappointment, but also the ceiling for delight. I think it’s worth it, but I also didn’t know there was a cost upfront. I just ended up here. I paid the fee.

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