Essay · 25 min read

Taste for Makers

Paul Graham Free Intermediate

Graham argues that good design is not just personal opinion, it has real properties (simplicity, honesty, solving the hard problem) you can learn to see. For a founder, this reframes taste as a skill you build rather than something you are born with. It is the essay that gives you a vocabulary for why one solution is genuinely better than another.

  • Good design is simple, honest, and solves the actual problem
  • Taste is a trainable judgment, not random personal preference
  • Good design is redesign, expect to throw away early versions
Open on paulgraham.com ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. Why does good design actually matter for an early-stage startup?
  2. As a solo technical founder, when is it worth hiring a designer versus using a template or design system?

Read with it

  1. Design tactics written specifically for developers and non-designers who need to ship good-looking UI without a design... refactoringui.com Book · ~250 pages Refactoring UI Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger
  2. The most accessible, practical intro to usability ever written, you can read it in a weekend and immediately fix your product.... sensible.com Book · ~200 pages Don't Make Me Think, Revisited Steve Krug
  3. Video · 18 minutes Design for Startups (Part 1) Garry Tan
  4. This is the single best starting point if you think design just means making things look nice. Riley wrote it as an open letter... Wells Riley Essay · 15 min read Startups, This Is How Design Works Wells Riley
  5. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  6. The single most-cited usability framework in the field, from the definitive UX research authority. A checklist you can hold... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~15 min read 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design Jakob Nielsen
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →