A new corner of the world, once every other week — sent to your inbox, nowhere else. No tracking, no blasts, no sharing.
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A tastemaxxing field guide through the corners of the world worth actually visiting, not repeating — so that your next opinion is yours.
i hate that all my sources of research are coming from people making reels on the internet. i need opinions and thoughts of my own.
Why we started this page
Tastemaxxing is not about building a library of references. It is the muscle of responding to something and being able to say exactly why.
Before adding a single new input, interrogate what you already love. The songs you replay. The outfit that feels like armour. Not why do you like it — that question is lazy. But: what does this do that the thing next to it does not?
Go narrow, not wide. Not art but Italian radical design of 1966; not music but Ethio-jazz of the 1969–74 golden age. Two to three weeks per corner. Primary sources only. Write a paragraph. Defend it. Revise it.
It keeps expanding — new corners, new voices, new things to mistakenly love.
Have a specific obsession, a half-forgotten essay, an artifact you think belongs here?
hello@un-borrowedtaste.com →Curating takes hours. If the library has given you something, consider funding the next volume.
Buy me a coffee ↗The questions people ask before they start -- and the answers that make the rest of this library make sense.
Tastemaxxing is the deliberate practice of developing original, un-borrowed taste by going deep into primary sources rather than absorbing opinions from social media feeds and algorithm recommendations. Instead of letting reels, TikToks, and curated playlists shape what you think is good, you pick a narrow subject -- like Italian radical design of 1966 or Ethio-jazz of the 1969--74 golden age -- spend two to three weeks with primary sources, and form your own specific, defensible opinions.
Start with what you already love. The songs you replay. The outfit that feels like armour. Don't ask "why do you like it" -- that question is lazy. Ask: "what does this do that the thing next to it does not?" Then go narrow. Pick one volume from the library above -- not "art" broadly, but a specific movement, era, or figure. Spend two to three weeks with primary sources only. Write a paragraph defending your opinion. Revise it. That's the muscle.
Consuming content is passive -- you absorb whatever the algorithm serves and call it a preference. Tastemaxxing is active and deliberate. You choose a narrow corner, go to primary sources (not summaries, not reviews, not someone's reel about it), form a specific opinion, and defend it. The goal isn't to accumulate references. It's to build the muscle of responding to something and being able to say exactly why it moves you -- and what it does that the thing next to it doesn't.
Each corner or obsession takes two to three weeks of focused, primary-source engagement. But tastemaxxing isn't a destination -- it's a practice. The method is ongoing: interrogate what you already love, then go narrow and deep into new corners, one at a time. This library covers 44 curated obsessions across art, literature, music, fashion, design, psychology, marketing, history, and storytelling -- enough to keep you going for over a year.
No. Tastemaxxing applies to any domain where opinions tend to be borrowed -- fashion, design, music, marketing, psychology, history, storytelling. The method is the same everywhere: go narrow, use primary sources, form a specific opinion, defend it. This library spans nine volumes and an appendix of 20 essays covering corners most people never reach through algorithmic discovery alone.
Don't browse this like a feed.
Pick one volume and disappear into it.
That's tastemaxxing. Two to three weeks. Primary sources only. Come back when you can tell me, in specific sentences, what the thing does — and what it does that the thing next to it doesn't.