If you can build anything, knowing what to build becomes the differentiator. That is what people mean by taste.
When we talk about taste being a differentiator in the age of AI, what do we mean by that?
You hear a lot about taste in the age of AI, especially when it comes to coding and agents. Taste, people say, is the real differentiator. Why are people saying that?
They're saying it because AI lets so much happen. There's an unlimited amount a person can build, and if you can build anything, knowing what to build becomes the differentiator. And even if multiple people decide to build the same thing, it's how you build it. How do you develop the UI? What is your framing? A point of view in software has always been important, but in some ways it's even more important now.
I can look at what I've done. I've built a lot of different apps. Some of them are throwaway; the quality just isn't there. Some of them are really good, at least for my needs and what I'm looking for. The difference between those wasn't my coding ability, because agentic coding has evened that out. The differentiator is my passion for the topic, how committed and opinionated I was about the tool being built. That's what really drives the difference in how good the product comes out.
So when we talk about taste, that's what we mean. That's how taste is becoming the differentiator.