I reckon it’s probably a generalisation of “research taste” which means “good judgement about what kind of research to try and do”. This is subtly different to the more typical usage of the word taste — like, “music taste” usually means “ability to discern what music is good” not “ability to discern what music to try and make”.
When I googled “research taste” many of the top results are LessWrong-adjacent, but I did find this page on “cultivating your research taste” written by some academics in 2013.
Maybe someone with superior googling skills to me can figure out if that’s the origin of the phrase.
I reckon it’s probably a generalisation of “research taste” which means “good judgement about what kind of research to try and do”. This is subtly different to the more typical usage of the word taste — like, “music taste” usually means “ability to discern what music is good” not “ability to discern what music to try and make”.
When I googled “research taste” many of the top results are LessWrong-adjacent, but I did find this page on “cultivating your research taste” written by some academics in 2013.
Maybe someone with superior googling skills to me can figure out if that’s the origin of the phrase.