We can all spot LLM-generated content from a mile away.
It’s the LinkedIn post that starts with “In today’s fast-paced digital landscape…” It’s the Slack message with twenty(!!) bullet points when a simple “yup” would do. It’s the component with 47 lines of CSS when five would be cleaner.
We’re drowning in slop.
I’ve been working with LLMs for some while, but recently got stuck on thinking about the importance of taste. With tools like Claude Code, you can build anything. Generate a full app in minutes, feature in seconds. But when generation is this cheap, most of what we create is slop, utter garbage.
The default output of any LLM is mediocrity. Safe, verbose, technically correct mediocrity. It’s the beige of content. The elevator music of code. The Dutch cuisine. Yuck.
The antidote is taste.
Taste isn’t about preference. It’s recognizing the difference between “it works” and “this feels right.” People can feel the difference, even if they won’t be able to articulate it to you.
They know when an app feels cheap, when copy is robotic, when design feels soulless.
Taste is verywhere. Some examples from my world:
- Architecture: Knowing when to add abstraction and when simplicity wins.
- APIs: When a package just works how you expect vs. when you’re fighting it at every step.
- UI: Understanding why 16px spacing feels better than 15px, why that animation needs ease-in-out instead of ease-in.
- Code: Choosing variable names that tell a story, not just store data.
I developed my taste from building alongside and learning from people like Wouter, who would spend hours perfecting “the grid”, something that many people would never consciously notice, but would feel.
That’s taste. Thousands of tiny decisions that separate the delightful from the disposable.
Soon, anyone will be able to generate a thousand variations in seconds. Developers without taste become slop engineers.
They’ll produce more, but it does not add beauty to the world.
So how do you develop taste?
- Study the masters: Pick apps you love. Dissect them. Why does Linear feel so good? What makes Stripe’s API docs a joy?
- Feel the friction: When something annoys you, dig deeper. What makes it feel bad?
- Ship with pride: Before you release something into the world, ask: “Am I proud of this work?”
- Master your fundamentals: Learn why something feels great. E.g. I’m taking animations.dev to understand why some movements feel natural and others don’t.
Generation is cheap. It’s no longer what sets you apart. The people who thrive won’t be the ones who generate the most. To work successfully with AI, you need taste. You need to know what to keep and what to chuck away.