Why "Taste" Matters in Science — and in Technology

When we talk about great achievements in science or technology, we often focus on intelligence, hard work, and technical skills. But Nobel laureate Yang Zhenning (Chen-Ning Yang) believes there's another, often overlooked, factor that determines whether someone makes truly exceptional contributions: taste.

And "taste" here doesn't mean food or fashion preferences. It's a hard-to-translate concept — sometimes described as discernment, aesthetic sense, or a clear sense of what's worth pursuing. In Yang's words, a researcher's taste influences the problems they choose to tackle, the elegance of their solutions, and ultimately, the value of their work.

Choosing the Right Problems

Yang argues that in research, the most crucial decision is what to work on. Many brilliant people spend decades in their fields, yet their impact varies dramatically. The difference? Some choose problems with deep potential, while others get stuck in areas with limited growth.

This applies far beyond physics. In tech, you can be a world-class engineer, but if you spend years perfecting a feature nobody needs, your brilliance is wasted. Having taste means knowing which directions are worth your limited time and energy.

Steve Jobs once made a similar observation when comparing Apple and Microsoft. He said Microsoft had talented people but often lacked taste — a vision for products that are not just functional, but meaningful and elegant. For Jobs, taste meant knowing what to say no to and relentlessly pursuing the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.

Focus, Persistence, and Breakthroughs

From 1947 to 1954, Yang worked on what became the Yang–Mills theory, facing repeated failures and complex mathematical obstacles. Many would have quit, but he persisted — not blindly, but with the conviction that the problem was worth solving. His taste told him it was a rich area, and history proved him right.

In the tech world, this is the difference between chasing every new trend and having the discipline to stick to a problem space until you've created something transformative. Whether you're building AI models, designing user interfaces, or engineering large-scale systems, taste helps you decide when to keep iterating and when to pivot.

Taste Shapes Style — and Legacy

Yang likens taste to a poet's style — every great scientist or engineer develops a unique fingerprint in their work. For him, his years at Southwest Associated University shaped his physics taste, influencing every judgment he made about what mattered in the field.

In technology, we see this in the DNA of companies. Apple's taste is visible in its obsessive attention to design and user experience. Google's taste leans toward elegant algorithmic solutions. Some startups' taste is speed and minimalism; others' is depth and craftsmanship.

Taste is not just preference — it's a strategic compass. It influences which problems you choose, how you solve them, and how the world perceives your work.

Why Taste Is a Competitive Edge

In a world of abundant talent and powerful tools, taste may be the last real competitive edge. It's what separates the merely competent from the truly visionary. Taste keeps you from over-engineering the wrong thing. It helps you see connections others miss. And it allows you to create work that is not just correct, but resonant.

Jobs once said: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Yang might have added: "And choosing what to design is where taste comes in."