What David Heinemeier Hansson thinks about taste
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals, and creator of Omarchy.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
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4 dated positions, 2025 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what David Heinemeier Hansson has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsThe other thing I'd say is that most organizations don't know what they want. They don't know how to make it better. They're not bottlenecked on implementation. They're bottlenecked on ideas. They're bottlenecked on vision. They're bottlenecked on taste. And if you don't have those element in excess of your implementational capacity, it doesn't help. So you can make a lot of shitty ideas come true, then what?
↗DHH: Future of Programming, AI, Agentic Engineering, Vibe Coding & Linux | Lex Fridman Podcast #501youtube.com 6th of 41 in this recording
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsI mean, I think aesthetics is truth. When something is beautiful, it's likely to be correct. I think this is true in mathematics. This is true in physics. This is true in a lot of different domains that when you arrive at something that has the correct aesthetic quality.
↗DHH’s new way of writing codeyoutube.com 5th of 20 in this recording
- 9 months earlier
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Their wordsIf that fully vertically integrated system suddenly is run by people with not quite as much taste as Steve Jobs with not quite as in tune sensibilities about everything from marketing to the vision of computing but instead by a logistics guy.
↗DHH discusses Linux and Omarchyyoutube.com 3rd of 9 in this recording
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Our readingRuby is probably his forever language, and he still tries new languages to widen the aperture.
Their wordseven though I love Ruby and I think Ruby probably is my forever language, I continue to hop into new languages and get a taste for them and try them.
↗DHH discusses Linux and Omarchyyoutube.com 8th of 9 in this recording