On Taste
Taste is usually described as if it were innate, something you either have or don't. I think it's closer to a muscle built out of a very specific kind of exposure: looking at a lot of things, some good and some bad, and being forced to say out loud which is which and why.
The "why" matters more than the verdict. Anyone can eventually learn to point at the better of two options. Taste is being able to say what's actually wrong with the worse one, specifically enough that you could fix it. That's the part that transfers to your own work.
Which means taste isn't really about appreciation at all. It's a debugging skill, aimed at aesthetics instead of code.