The two words that are thrown around constantly, taste and slop. And I'm fascinated by these two words and how little discussion there is around these two words. And taste in particular is a word that you can just you can say and I get to I get to say how high status I am by going the thing that's really important in 2026 is taste and you [ __ ] peasant don't have any [ __ ] taste. Um and slop's like the inverse of that where somebody can
just say the word slop now with no definition of what why they mean slop. It's kind of like in a less emotionally charged way but like the word racist or sexist that you can just throw it around now. You can throw it around willy-nilly. You can bandy it around the office willy-nilly. Um and nobody knows exactly what it is. And there's a great essay um George Orwell's politics and the English language. And he talks about how there's these new turns of phrase like as a writer
you can just put in there at the end of the day or just turns of phrase which can just signal that I think people will like this. >> Right. >> And I can seem smart but there's no depth to this at all. And I'm fascinated by cuz Jack you're somebody who I'd say has like what people would describe as taste. But I've been fascinated by how do you actually develop that muscle? And there's a wonderful exercise I got from my friend Billy where it's like it's
always very simple. Billy Oppenheimer. And he has this thing called um what I like about what I like where whenever he sees something that he likes, he will just capture it, put in his phone, and then try and explain to himself why he likes it. >> Mhm. >> And then I created a what I dislike about what I dislike. And then when I see something I don't like, I'll capture it and write it down. And then you also have like a little swipe file to go
through when you're doing it. But I'm just fascinated by right now these two words in particular that everybody's using them and nobody defines it. >> Mhm. Can you find um there's a quote by Ira Glass? It's like if if you put Ira Glass taste >> Taste gap I think it's called. >> Taste gap is like a one paragraph definition of like having taste means you will always be dissatisfied with what you produce. >> Huh. >> This quote is from the American author Ira Glass. Nobody tells
this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste, but there is this gap. For the first couple of years, you make stuff. It's just not that good. It's trying to be good. It has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They
quit. Most people I know who do interesting creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We go through this. And if you are just starting out, or if you are still in this phase, you got to know it's normal, and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a
volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took too long to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's going to take a while. It's normal to take a while. You just got to fight your way through it. >> Damn. Bang. >> [laughter] >> There is ship it. What's the I I can't remember. I think it was Shane Parrish who said um like um maybe Tiago Forte. Like procrastination is
bad because it stops you from doing stuff, but it's mostly bad because it stops you from shipping work at a volume sufficiently enough to work out what works. >> Mhm. >> Like if you don't ever It's your thing about I'd rather be high conviction and wrong than low conviction and right. >> rather be um I'd rather be an idiot than a coward. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, because if you don't ever put stuff out, or if you only put stuff out when you know that
it's going to work, you haven't actually learned all that much. Like learning a lot means, okay, I've got a big sample set. I've thrown a lot of stuff out. But the I mean, the shortest thing, at least for me, like taste is the ability to discern between good and not good. >> Right. >> And yeah, I would like I would pair up the slop comment with basically you're outsourcing taste. I think that's what people are trying to refer to when they use the word slop. It's
like there is a lacking intention in the output, and a lot of people think that that is like if any tool that has like an incredible amount of power was used, you're giving up some agency. And that I think that's like the >> Done without taste. >> Slop is done without taste. >> And and like the way that these things are trained is like the clawed there's like textbook like little marks on there that if you did not guide this with a certain amount of intention,
it's just going to show up every time. >> And my my like rebuttal of the next level that I think exists is that's fine. And to say slop when you see slop is fine, but that is slop. So, you just I just call that slop slop. >> Yeah. >> So, if you're going to say slop >> is also unoriginal. >> If you're going to say slop, tell me why. >> Yeah. >> Explain to >> What's on your list? You said you have a list now of
like things that why I dislike what I dislike or why >> Let me pull it up. Hold on, 1 second. It's interesting around the uh this is seen as low effort cuz that John Mark uh guy >> Mhm. >> broke the [ __ ] internet. The first one of him where he's shadowboxing, and he's just like he's sort of doing like a little dance. >> Amazing. >> [laughter] >> But everyone was completely mystified by this guy. Like there's so much aura. >> Until you found out
it was AI. So, that Okay so there's something the same thing but finding out I mean if you watch Hoog or Fun or any of these big explainer YouTube channels. I love their documentaries. I think that they're great. They put a disclaimer at the very start that says all of our information is done by humans. >> Mhm. >> Because they need to show effort up front because the gap in terms of output like finished article is difficult to determine for us. So, what I have to
do is basically say even if you can't tell, the proof of work is there to show that we put a lot of effort into making this. Did I send you the Gossip Goblin thing? >> The Love Island thing? >> No, go on. Can you find Gossip Goblin on on uh >> [laughter] >> Instagram? >> name. What is it? >> This is like AI film, and it's like you're not going to mistake it for not being AI film, but the level of craft is absolutely unbelievable. >>
Right. >> And >> So they're they're taking something that people would typically see as low effort and slop, but pushing it to its absolute limit. >> And I would say they're putting in like a level of effort in the production that you would associate with like any kind of like ST uh Hollywood production studio. You'll see in these outputs like >> So like, what kind of birds are you into, love? You like them all sexy and stuff? >> Um I Well, all types, yeah. I love
all birds girls, but um yeah, if I had to pick, I'd say I like the pretty [music] ones when they're looking all sexy and stuff. >> Aw, you calling me fit. You're so sweet. Fonzie, you nasty slag. How could you? Gobo's my man. >> Welcome [music] to Lovers' Lagoon. >> Welcome. >> So here we have Neo Cradle's finest, flirtiest, and feistiest singles fight, fornicate, and find love. So come on and take your hand out of your pants [music] and let's go meet the cast. >> Been
a rough year, not going to lie. Me hairline wobbled, my corners have gotten and the gooning got bad, real [music] bad. But I've locked in now and I'm ready to stop just the maxing and start mogging, bruv. >> I'm a proper gent. [music] I treat every bird like a princess and her father like an absolute king. Manners cost nothing, sweetheart. >> it's even got >> say I'm full of myself, [music] but I'm the fittest sort here, aren't I? It's just maths, isn't it? >> Don't know,
really. >> [laughter] >> Nice villa, though, yeah? >> I'm a romantic, I am. When a fellow pulls out a chair for me or opens a door, boom, me fanny flutters [music] and I'm already planning our babies' names, yeah? >> What's crazy is this is such a strong like >> [laughter] >> Except for him. I was about to say Well, I was about to say was um the ability to distill uh stereotypes. Like British stere- Each of those is an archetype that exists. Uh but yeah, I
mean I don't know. Are people ever going to say this is AI This is something which is typically low effort, but you've done it in a way which is high effort, therefore I'm going to give you I think there's so much ick around AI generally that you're never really going to no matter how good you >> short term. >> Yeah, I just I agree. >> I think there will be always like the new organic or free range is like handmade is you know it's human made
basically. They're going to there's going to be a word for this like you know I think Rory was talking about how like horsepower became a phrase because they needed to describe the speed of something and they could only describe it relative to >> in the units of something previous. >> And and horsepower was needed and like I think the AI industry needs its version of horsepower. It's like it needs to >> It needs its prediction markets. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Cuz it's like these e-vals
are also complicated. Nobody knows what the hell how much one's better or not. >> what the new [ __ ] >> just be an IQ, right? They need to come up with an number that's like we got 99, they have 98 you know. >> Supreme intelligence. You see the poll. Oh, the Trump poll. >> Oh, yeah, yeah, the rebrand. Oh, yeah, he's trying. >> He's trying, but I don't >> He's ahead of the game. He's a font. >> Oh, yeah, he was trying to name it
something else in supreme intelligence. >> Beam was one and then the other one was um I can't remember. He wanted to call it ASI, but the problem is that ASI means artificial super intelligence which is the thing that everyone's worried about. >> Yeah, it wasn't super, it was it was supreme and then it was like superior or something. I forget, but there's like three words that >> artificial. >> I think the big thing is the artificial. >> Yeah. >> Which makes sense. It's not the best
branding. >> he knows his branding, yeah. >> Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Interesting. What was your list? >> Um my thing is not working. Carry on without me. >> Machine intelligence was another one that I've like but again that has the like we're getting replaced. >> What's this? Here's a >> It's not a gram. New pickle. What do you think? >> Woohoo. >> Very nice. Look at that. Picked them up from the deli yesterday. Good coloring. That's dill. And the brine is something called mustard seed.
>> It's very cool, Bateman, but that's nothing. Look at this. >> That is really nice. >> Half sour with garlic brine. What do you think? >> Nice. >> Jesus. That is really super. How did an nitwit like you get so tasteful? >> I can't believe that Bryce prefers Van Patten's pickle to mine. >> Well, wait. You ain't seen nothing yet. >> Barrel cured. Whole peppercorn. Extra crisp. >> Impressive. Very nice. >> Mhm. >> Let's see Paul Allen's pickle. >> I want to know how they put
the pickles away. >> Look at that subtle olive coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my god. It even has little bumps. >> Something wrong? Patrick? You're sweating. >> Jesus [ __ ] Yeah. It is over. It is so It is so close to being over. A quick note, lots of people tell us that YouTube unsubscribes them from the channel even though they already pressed it. So, just check down there and see if the subscribe button is pressed. You get access to episodes before anybody else
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