Taste and discernment carry two different weights.

Taste pulls you in and  deeply linked to instinct, preference, personality and creative pull.

Discernment is judgment, context and critical thinking. 

It helps you decide where your taste feels the most considered.

In discernment mode, you pause before you accept, copy, publish, believe, build around or use something.

Discernment says, hey, wait a minute. 

Just because something looks good, sounds good or keeps showing up everywhere, does it fit? 

And even if it does not fit neatly, even if it pushes boundaries, can it still belong?

That question is something I see Skylar Marshai asking a lot in her work. 

Skylar is one of the most original content creators I’ve come across in a long time.

If you don’t know her work, you’re in for a treat. She creates brand campaigns that feel more like miniature worlds than sponsored posts.

She has incredible taste.

Watch any one of her brand campaigns and I swear you’ll be willingly pulled into a rabbit hole of originality.

With ideas that are bold, full of life and built with imagination, she feels different from almost everyone else on my feed.

Her inspiration is clearly not Pinterest and Instagram. Nor does it seem to come from saving other people’s work.

Her references are grounded in culture, art, fashion and her own unique way of pulling them all together to build a story.

They inform her aesthetic, eye, originality and creative pull.

In my head, when she creates she’s probably asking one singular question when presented with a client brief: How do I make this campaign feel unlike anything else, while still having it make perfect sense for the brand?

In a sea of sameness, Skylar has both taste and discernment.

And that is an important distinction.

The Difference Between Taste and Discernment?

Everyone has taste. You can judge it as good or bad, but I cheer for the folks who express their individuality, personality and ideas in whatever way they want to.

It’s their way of saying: this is who I am. These are my choices, an expression of how I see the world, both internal and external.

And if your taste coincides with theirs, taste becomes the pull, the reason you connect.

But taste does not equal discernment.

I’d imagine the reason why Skylar’s campaigns hit it out of the park every time, and the reason she is booked and busy, is because she knows how to make the work feel different while still serving the brands, not just herself.

 That is the important part.

A lot of people with taste can make something pretty, or dramatic or unusual. Discernment is what keeps the work from becoming self-indulgent.

So I’ll go back to my original questions I bet Skylar asks:  Does my interpretation serve the brief? Does this fit the brand? Where does my originality shine? What’s the intersection?

And it’s only because  she  pauses long enough to ask these questions that I’d say, just from the outside looking in, discernment is what makes her taste work so well.

It’s not only about aesthetics or creativity. She has loads of it. So do many other people. It’s because Skylar thinks and plans  long enough before she executes.

The lesson is clear: 

Discernment is connected to critical thinking, the ability to pause before accepting, copying, publishing, believing or building around something just because it looks good, sounds good or keeps showing up everywhere.

Discernment Is Where Taste Meets Critical Thinking

I want to move the conversation beyond Skye’s work, albeit kicking and screaming, to talk about why discernment is not just about having a better eye.

I see discernment as one of the highest forms of critical thinking.

Now, something happens when I talk about critical thinking.People’s eyes glaze over.

Too much, I’ve been told.

Oh, and let’s not talk about the overarching feeling among many young millenials that critical thinking in the age of AI is so 1999.

But critical thinking is really just pausing long enough to ask what is true, what fits, what holds up and what deserves our trust.

I’m a former award-winning journalist, and the child of a journalist. 

These principles are buried in my bones.

And I think discernment is what makes critical thinking feel human. It is what makes Skylar’s campaigns so unique.

And it may also be one of our greatest strengths in an age where AI is being touted as our replacement.

What Stanford Tells Us

Now I’m going to pull out the bible on critical thinking: Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stay with me, because its definition is chef’s kiss.

Strip away the academic packaging, and one of the clearest ways Stanford frames critical thinking is:   Careful thinking directed toward a goal.

Simple, right?

That goal can be anything you deem it to be: truth, clarity, making a better decision.

It could also be applied to figuring out…

…whether the advice you keep hearing actually applies to your business

…if the AI answer in front of you is trustworthy 

 …if   the latest IG trend is worthy of pursuit

…or whether a deep burgundy velvet curtain is about to make your living room look like Christmas in July.

*** clears throat*** that last one is all me, as you’ll see later.

But the point I’m trying to make is that each decision uses the same muscle: critical thinking 

We may be training it in different rooms, but the strength we are building is the same.

Critical Thinking Is About Disposition

There is  also a second part of the Stanford entry that I love. It’s tje section that states critical thinking is not only about ability. 

It is also about disposition.

In other words, it is not enough to know how to question, compare, check, research or reason.

You also have to be willing to do it.

That might mean pausing when everyone else is rushing,  asking for the source or  admitting that something sounds good but does not quite hold up against any rigour.

Or simply saying, “This may be beautiful, popular, persuasive or convenient, but does it belong here?”

That willingness is where discernment lives for me.

Discernment is what happens when taste meets judgment, context and the discipline to think before you choose.

****Want more of this kind of thinking in your inbox? Join the newsletter *** HERE or below***. We talk business, AI, creativity, and the occasional dramatic curtain decision.

Taste vs Discernment: The Burgundy Velvet Test

Now if  Skylar’s work shows how taste and discernment is showcased from a creative brief, my burgundy-red velvet drapes showed me what they look like in real life.

Same idea. Much higher chance of a horror story. Ok here is the behind- the- scenes take,

I finally bought the fabric for the deep burgundy velvet drapes for the main living room.

I know it sounds like a lot, and believe me, I thought about the choice so much, it followed me into my dreams.

Velvet is not a common choice for drapes. In fact, the woman at Jimmy Aboud told me hardly anyone buys velvet for curtains.

Maybe that is why, the night before the final decision, I woke up sweating:

“Would deep burgundy velvet make the main space look like Christmas in July?”

Valid concern. I already have the green sectional.

I pushed the thought aside and went back to Jimmy Aboud to make the final selection. I told Cauline, the drapery manager, about my Christmas horror story.

She said, “Would that be so bad?”

That sealed it.

Forty-two yards of burgundy velvet later, I understood the difference between taste and discernment in a much more practical way.

Buying the fabric was taste.

I wanted the room to feel richer in texture. I wanted to balance the traditional architecture of the high cathedral ceilings with all the glass in the main room.

 The walls are creamy white, and I wanted something that would break up the beige boredom.

Is It Enough?

But taste alone was not enough.

Once I chose the velvet, I sprawled it across the couch and started thinking about what had to happen around it.

That was discernment.

I decluttered a lot of objects I had floating around.

 I decided to add animal-print cushions and started looking for vintage rugs with green patina that would pick up the tones of the green velvet fabric in the sunroom.

The taste was choosing the burgundy velvet.

The discernment was asking what had to move, what had to leave and what could come back so the room still made sense.

Taste vs Discernment: Why Critical Thinking  Matters More

In the end, I tell my students it’s all about context.

Whether we’re talking about creative direction, drapes, life, work or especially AI, discernment asks us to slow down long enough to decide what we’re actually looking at.

I question and internally challenge almost every big announcement from AI companies.

Is AI really taking away all our jobs?

Is it the revolution AI leaders claim it is?

How?

Why?

Where is the data, the evidence, the independent thinking, the transparency?

In the same vein, I no longer treat AI output as the answer.

And honestly, you shouldn’t either.

Critical thinking may be one of the superpowers we have left. To relinquish it completely to AI does not do the brain good. Or the future.

Let’s talk about output for a second too. AI-generated output should act as a draft. I tell my students to view AI output as direction.

Useful? Absolutely.

Final authority? For the love of critical thinking, no.

Better Questions To Ask

When AI gives me something that sounds impressive, I do not only ask, “Is this good?”

I ask, “What is missing?”

Where are the gaps?

What would someone else argue?

What is the source?

What has been flattened to make this answer sound neat?

That is the journalist in me, I know.

But I think it is also the human in me trying not to hand over my judgment just because the machine sounds certain.

Even when I use Google’s AI-assisted search, where AI summaries appear above or alongside traditional search results, I still want the links. I want the references. I want to see where the answer came from.

If you’ve been here for a second, you know I am not anti-AI. I’m  more pro critical thinking.

Because I see every day how discernment changes the relationship we have with AI. Yes, we can prompt better but we also need to think better.

Moving Beyond Trends

That is why I love Skylar’s work. Her taste is clear, her discernment clearer. 

Stanford  also gives us the language for it through critical thinking.

And my burgundy velvet drapes reminded me that even taste needs editing.

Listen up, AI is making the whole idea of discernment more urgent. 

Ideas arrive faster now, but can they be trusted? Are they useful? Are they excellent? Or are they just average thoughts dressed up beautifully?

Discernment is trending for a reason. I’m hoping it moves beyond trend and becomes something we practice every day