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- Taste and curation (144)
Taste and curation (144)
Aug 25 2025

Interesting things I learned recently
1. Navajo (the first nations tribe and language) was used for secure communicaitons within the US military during World War I. Navajo soldiers would translate english messages into navajo for radio communication, and another navajo soldier would be on the other end to recieve and translate it back to english. This was a very quick process, much faster than the encryption methods used otherwise. Also, there was no knowledge of Navajo on the german side, and even when they could intercept the messages and listen, they could never crack Navajo and translate it back into english/german. Look it up.
2. Casinos try to design gambling floors to have no corners. This is along the same idea of having no windows or clocks. They want the experience in the casino to be seamless and smooth. The environment will never cause you to stop and think. Your reaction to the time may cause you to leave the casino. Same with corners, maybe you just turn around and leave.
Having good taste is not replaceable
As AI and information continue to over run our daily lives, the choice of what to consume/ watch/ read/ listen is becoming more important. Having good taste for information- what is useful, what is interesting, and what should be ignored, is crucial. AI generally has terrible taste and should be used for raw facts only. When it does have good taste, it got lucky. It does not realize when it has had good taste or not, and that is almost worse.
I consume in my own life, according to my own tastes, then I refine and distill what I have consumed into this blog. Its two layers of taste and curation. The whole point of this newsletter is having taste. Information is free, abundant, constant. There is so much information that we need to reduce information inputs. You cant read everything, so what will you read? The fact that you are reading this newsletter is a great sign that I have (at least a little) taste.
Synonyms and adjacent ideas taste:
curation- of music into playlists, of art into galleries, of furniture and decor into a home, of clothes into personal style, of books into a library
editing- of books, movies, having good taste
Taste is a skill. This will not be taken by AI (I dont think).
Quote to go
“Not to be afraid when you are all alone is the only true way of being not afraid. Where does your courage come in, when you cannot find it in your own self but always have to grasp God morally?”
Thanks for reading!
Lucas