I don’t have a good articulation of my current aesthetic tastes. (Because I am insufficiently articulate and/or they are incoherent.) But here are some pointers.

(I’ve tried to make this close-ish-to-orthogonal to my enjoyment of or respect for these things, with only partial success. A bunch of the pointers below share the vibe of “maximization good, moderation bad” – I especially want to emphasize this as a case where my aesthetics come apart from what I think is good on reflection.)

Good:

1. Purple.
2. Truth-seeking, the activity.
3. Sports as religion.
4. Musical theatre, Kendrick, JME, 00’s bangers, Jacob Collier, melody-free techno.
5. The future belongs to the obsessed.
6. Inter-generational living.
7. Harshly subverting gendered expectations.
8. Exaggeration for effect, gesticulation, moving around whilst in conversation, Camille Paglia’s speaking style.
9. Strong commitment to principles; Austin Chen’s commitment to total transparency.
10. Being nice to people in situations where it doesn’t have instrumental value (no selfish benefit, not being observed).
11. Betting on beliefs.
12. Simone Weil, Corey Booker.
13. The Lincoln Memorial.
14. Large plants, hanging plants.
15. Water flowing over rocks.
16. The uniquely rationalist communication style that kind of sounds like a philosophy seminar translated into “folksy,” exemplified by Buck Shlegeris.
17. John Maynard Keynes.
18. Massage; fancy cocktails; coffee-/wine-tasting.
19. Being strategic; paying close attention to where the thing you’re optimizing for deviates from your goalsn.
20. Fractal planning.
21. 90% clothes that look generically good on pinterest, 10% Jacob Collier/Agnes Callard.
22. ~20% body fat.
23. Gil Carvalho’s nutrition takes.
24. Radical markets, Slouching Towards Utopia.
25. Harvey Milk; confident subcultures that aren’t insular.
26. Scrubs.
27. Poetry.

Bad:

1. Brown.
2. Truth seeking, the phrase.
3. Sports as recreation.
4. Folk music.
5. Criticism of Brasilia.
6. Denominating purchases in bednets.
7. Not teaching the massacre of Germans after WWII.
8. Holiday planning.
9. Caring too much about Californian housing policy.
10. Not taking yourself too seriously.
11. Satisficing, 80:20.
12. Nail polish, perfume.
13. Stability training, functional training, calisthenics.
14. Straussian readings.
15. Andrew Huberman.
16. David Goggins.
17. Most applied microeconomics.
18. Not having children because of climate change.