The engineering judgment AI can't produce. What developer taste is, what it looks like in real code, and how to develop it before AI makes the question obsolete
That's a great one with the Auth-copy thing, so AI. 😄 Coding agents often take things at face value, and unless something is structurally wrong, they rarely push back and just roll with something assuming it's a design choice. Been down the same road rebuilding our code-review agents as a team — "available" rules almost never get used. ~2-3 of 10 fire per run for us. Taste is also whats in context at turn one vs hoping it gets picked up. Just wrote about this actually. Great one Fran!
I like the way you put it. "Taste" isn't about doing it yourself. It's not about being a craftsman who does things by hand, as some important people write about. Taste is what goes into the context window. Taste is those mindful decisions to make things work :)
Whenever I have to tackle a complex problem, I open Obsidian and start writing down possible solutions. More often than not, I end up not understanding some parts, and I try to clarify them by asking my colleagues or looking up the answer in our docs.
Then I split the solution into deliverable (reviewable) chunks, and only after that, I use AI to multiply my throughput.
I would add that keeping connecting with non-tech members like product managers and designers also help with cultivating that taste. You’ll know that what to build for what purpose, easier to establish a sense of long-term product ownership, which AI cannot do at this stage.
That's a great one with the Auth-copy thing, so AI. 😄 Coding agents often take things at face value, and unless something is structurally wrong, they rarely push back and just roll with something assuming it's a design choice. Been down the same road rebuilding our code-review agents as a team — "available" rules almost never get used. ~2-3 of 10 fire per run for us. Taste is also whats in context at turn one vs hoping it gets picked up. Just wrote about this actually. Great one Fran!
I like the way you put it. "Taste" isn't about doing it yourself. It's not about being a craftsman who does things by hand, as some important people write about. Taste is what goes into the context window. Taste is those mindful decisions to make things work :)
For frontend, this taste is superpower. Outside of code, it's "product judgement" and "UIUX taste".
Inside of code, this article covered.
My taste tells me we have a similar taste for AI.
Whenever I have to tackle a complex problem, I open Obsidian and start writing down possible solutions. More often than not, I end up not understanding some parts, and I try to clarify them by asking my colleagues or looking up the answer in our docs.
Then I split the solution into deliverable (reviewable) chunks, and only after that, I use AI to multiply my throughput.
Nice sharing!
I would add that keeping connecting with non-tech members like product managers and designers also help with cultivating that taste. You’ll know that what to build for what purpose, easier to establish a sense of long-term product ownership, which AI cannot do at this stage.