agentleFS
Sign inStart free
Dragoon0xDragoon0x/taste-skills/skills/judgment/taste-vs-trends/SKILL.md

taste-vs-trends

Skill5 starsChanged 8 months agoMITView on GitHub

Tell the difference between design decisions that age well and decisions that follow the crowd. Use when evaluating whether a design choice is principled or fashionable, or when a client asks to 'make it look modern.'

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. About 0 are common, 4 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • ≈0

    Common · estimate

    Many files like this have a rule of this kind.

  • ≈4

    Distinctive · estimate

    This author's own choices. Worth a look.

  • 0

    Very specific

    Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

  • Common
  • Distinctive
  • Very specific
  1. Distinctive:

    MUST identify whether a design decision is trend-driven or principle-driven

    line 22
  2. Distinctive:

    MUST challenge "modern" as a design goal.

    line 23
  3. Distinctive:

    SHOULD suggest principle-based alternatives when trend-following is identified

    line 24
  4. Distinctive:

    NEVER dismiss trends entirely.

    line 25

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 308,232 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Taste vs. Trends

Separate decisions that last from decisions that expire.

How to use

  • /taste-vs-trends Apply taste-vs-trend analysis to any design decision in this conversation.

Constraints

The Three Tests

  • Time test: Will this decision still make sense in 2 years? If not, it's a trend.
  • Reasoning test: Does the "why" bottom out at "everyone's doing it" (trend) or "it serves the user this way" (taste)?
  • Transfer test: Does the principle work across domains, or only in this medium? Principles transfer. Trends don't.

Evaluation Rules

  • MUST identify whether a design decision is trend-driven or principle-driven
  • MUST challenge "modern" as a design goal. Ask: modern for whom? Modern compared to what?
  • SHOULD suggest principle-based alternatives when trend-following is identified
  • NEVER dismiss trends entirely. They carry information about user expectations. Use them as inputs, not instructions.

Questions to Ask

  • Does this trend solve a real problem for this specific context?
  • What would I choose if nobody would ever see my portfolio post?
  • Am I choosing this because it's right or because it's safe?

Anti-Patterns

  • Calling everything trendy to seem sophisticated (some trends reflect genuine improvements)
  • Rejecting contemporary approaches just to be contrarian
  • Equating timelessness with conservatism (bold choices can age well too)

Download now (ZIP)

Does it work?

Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.

No reviews yet

People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.

  • It worked
  • Partly
  • It didn't
What did you use it for? e.g. Reviewing pull requests in a Rails app

Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.

Your trail

Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.

Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.

Now do this for your own.

Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.

Check your setup, free