Taste Is a Competitive Advantage

For a long time, technology rewarded scale.

The companies with the most engineers, the biggest budgets and the most features usually won.

I think that's changing.

AI is making software dramatically easier to build.

Soon, almost anyone will be able to create software.

When building becomes easier, something else becomes more important.

Taste.

Taste is knowing what not to build.

Taste is restraint.

Taste is deciding that three options are better than thirty.

Taste is removing a feature everyone else would add.

Taste is choosing clarity over flexibility.

Good taste creates clarity.

Clarity creates trust.

Most products don't fail because they lack features.

They fail because they lack focus.

Everything seems important.

Nothing gets removed.

Complexity accumulates quietly.

The result is software that can do everything and excels at nothing.

The products I admire most are opinionated.

They make decisions.

They guide people.

They remove unnecessary choices.

They feel considered.

Thoughtful.

Calm.

Taste shows up everywhere.

In design.

In copy.

In support.

In pricing.

In onboarding.

In what you choose to ignore.

Anyone can add another feature.

It takes conviction to leave something out.

As software becomes easier to build, craftsmanship becomes more important, not less.

The future won't belong to the companies that build the most.

It will belong to the companies with the taste to build less.