Taste Is All That's Left
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As AI tools collapse the distance between idea and working software, the traditional barrier of production — the hours of typing, debugging, and grinding through APIs — has effectively disappeared. This shifts the scarce skill from making things to judging what deserves to exist. Taste, defined not as aesthetic preference but as the fast, wordless verdict that separates plausible from right, was always the core of the craft. The uncomfortable corollary: taste was built through friction, through shipping bad work and living with its failures. Removing that friction for new developers may produce fluent generators who never developed the judgement the friction taught. Meanwhile, taste is economically invisible — it slows you down, prevents disasters that leave no trace, and earns no dashboard credit. Drawing parallels to the Arts and Crafts movement's response to industrialization, the argument concludes that when making becomes free, choosing becomes the craft. The human question shifts from 'can I build it' to 'does this deserve to exist' — and that was always the more serious question.
Table of contents
The Bar Went SomewhereWhat Taste Actually IsTaste Is Downstream of FrictionThe Economics Are Against YouThe FloodWhat Deserves to ExistA Defense, ThenFootnotesQuestions this post answers
What happens to developer skill and judgement when AI tools can generate working code instantly?
The value of production skill does not disappear — it moves. When AI collapses the cost of making things, the scarce act shifts from making to choosing. Taste — the fast, wordless verdict that distinguishes plausible from right — becomes the only skill that cannot be automated or rented back to you. The economics of effort used to enforce a quality floor; removing that floor makes judgement the sole remaining filter. Engineers navigating what to invest in as AI reshapes the craft find the sharpest takes on daily.dev.
How is taste or judgement developed as a software engineer, and can it be learned without struggle?
Taste is built through making bad things and being forced to live with their failures — not through consuming good work. The friction of climbing walls, paying costs repeatedly, and sitting with mistakes is the curriculum. Removing that friction for new developers produces fluent generators who skipped the apprenticeship, arriving at productivity without the judgement that the struggle used to build. Developers thinking through how to grow their craft in an AI-assisted world keep up with the conversation on daily.dev.