Not at all. Vanishingly few things during the development process of a novel thing have truly objective measures. The world is far too complex. We all act and exist primarily in a probabilistic environment. A subjective evaluation is not so different than simply making a prediction about how something will turn out. If your predictions based on subjective measures turn out to be more correct than others, your subjectivity is objectively better.

Hence the author's main point: a good taste is one that fits with the needs of the project. If you can't align your own presuppositions with the actualities of the work you're doing then obviously your subjective measures going forward will not be very good.

This is something I wrestle with. Objectively, it'd seem true that say, a Henry Moore sculpture is of "better taste" than Disneyland. ;) But I 100% wouldn't wanna criticise anyone who preferred Disneyland. Its up to them, they don't have "poor taste" for preferring that... its arrogant indeed to make such a judgement, but then again... surely.. Henry Moore, Disneyland... there's no comparison? ;) so I go around in circles... ;)

That's exactly how it works in most fields that are not purely engineering but where the space of design solutions to do X is huge. Architecture, software development, ...

If I correctly catch the drift of your argument, you're saying “engineering is objective”, so there is such a thing as a right and wrong choice in any given situation. ...well, to the extent that that's true, the word “taste” is a poor choice of words then. Actually, I think that's the case for this article. I think the article is fine, but the title and “taste” as a choice of word is not great. The article is more about intellectual humility and subordinating your individual priorities underneath the requirements of the project, which is all perfectly fine.

There are some domains where the word “taste” can still properly be applied, for example “vi vs emacs” comes down to individual taste. But then, “emacs people have poor taste” is something that only a narcissist would say. (The “narcissism of small differences” is a well-studied phenomenon).

Or perhaps one uses this choice of words because one feels some sympathy for people who say this in other domains, like “This room, filled with IKEA furniture and film memorabilia, was decorated in poor taste”

… either way, the red flag seems to stick.

The reason it's worth mentioning is that the notion seems to be catching on, and I've seen it applied, for example, in hiring decisions, where I think it's quite dangerous and counterproductive. It lends itself to rationalizing hiring only like-minded people, even where there is no objective ground for preferring one candidate to another.

I couldn't say emacs developers have poor taste but I could say its' not my taste. I don't have to disrespect them. People think in different ways and get used to different things.

e.g. I might decide that some clothes, although well made and possibly even very fashionable, are not my taste. The superiority/inferiority of taste is something that insecure people focus on IMO. A tasteless thing would be something that doesn't seem to show any overall philosophy of design or something which is bombastic - it goes to town on some aspect at the expense of all others - there's a lack of balance. Even then, who cares?

If I wear a bright tomato-coloured suit because I like colour, why should that make me a bad person? It's only when other people have to accept your tastes because they work with you that they're going to moan about them.

The problem with software is that while it is in some sense objective, one of the most important properties of good software is that it can adapt to future requirements, and that's something that can only be evaluated in hindsight.

Lacking an objective way to predict that, we turn to taste.

I think taste is one of those things that we use to describe something that is a bit difficult to judge.

Something might not be to my taste but it can be good and workable nonetheless. It has taken some decisions that lead to solving a problem in a certain way and I can see that that way works and can be extended but it might not be a way that pleases me. Perhaps this is because it forces me to think in a mode that I am not generally accustomed to.

I think that depends on context. In some cases (sweet vs salted popcorn) perhaps we could say that, but in others (rotten vs fresh meat) it may well still be subjective (there are people with heterodox taste preferences out there!), but I wouldn’t take it to be a red flag for narcissism.

There are plenty of subjective preferences that we can make comparative claims about without any risk of narcissism.

Subjectivity is fine when it is backed by experience and knowledge. If anything, the narcissist perspective is the one where you claim expert opinion doesn't matter because it's all subjective and it hurts your feelings when people criticize your work (or your "taste").