February 20, 2026
Taste Wars: Attack of the Clones
No Skill. No Taste
Taste Wars erupt: Devs roast AI “slop,” defenders clap back
TLDR: A viral rant claims AI made it easy to ship bland, copycat apps and says only work with real “taste” breaks through, citing OpenClaw’s hype despite flaws. Commenters split between “taste is the last moat,” “AI numbs taste,” and “taste is vague,” with some celebrating new creators empowered by AI.
A grumpy love letter to the web just dropped, arguing the AI boom has unleashed a flood of look‑alike, vibe‑coded apps with no skill, no taste. The author says Large Language Models (AI that writes code) lowered the door, not the standard—and that Hacker News (the nerdy Reddit for tech) has always rewarded taste over technical flexes. Case in point: the simple self‑destructing website was pure taste, while buzzy tool OpenClaw was called a “software nightmare” but still loved because it felt right. Cue fireworks in the comments under the HN thread:
One camp cheers that taste is the last moat in an age where AI can clone anything. Another goes full doom: spending too much time with AI is like a slot machine—it dulls your palate and makes mid feel masterpiece. Then the skeptics storm in, calling “taste” a fuzzy buzzword—“Does Apple have it? Who decides?” Meanwhile, romantics dream of a weird, personal web comeback—MySpace vibes, hand‑coded blogs, chaotic charm. And a heart‑warmer lands: a parent says their 7‑year‑old is building little games with AI. Gatekeeping meets wonder.
Jokes fly about a “taste‑o‑meter,” another cursed todo app, and whether vibes count as features. The only consensus? Everyone’s tired of copy‑paste apps—and nobody agrees on who gets to be the taste police.
Key Points
- •The article asserts LLMs have lowered perceived barriers to app creation, leading to more derivative and low-quality projects.
- •It frames project reception as a function of both “taste” and “skill,” arguing many Show HN posts lack both.
- •Hacker News is described as taste-driven: resonance with users often outweighs technical complexity.
- •Simple projects can succeed if conceptually compelling, exemplified by “This Website Will Self-Destruct.”
- •OpenClaw is cited as a project embraced for taste despite technical and security shortcomings; the author expects low-taste posts to decline as norms mature.