The difference between work that holds up and work that does not is almost
never talent. It is whether someone looked closely enough, for long enough, to
notice the thing that was slightly wrong.
Noticing is trainable
We talk about taste as if it were innate. It is mostly accumulated noticing —
a library of small wrongnesses you have seen before and can now recognise
faster than you can explain.The practical consequence is unglamorous: the way to get better is to keep
looking at the thing after you have stopped enjoying looking at it.