Recently, I shared a quick thought in response to an article by Pete Sena on vibe coding and the craft idea in the age of AI. Not long after, I saw Jack Kaido make an interesting point about how skill might become a form of taste, something we value not just for its utility, but for its refinement and rarity.

Both ideas stuck with me. They’re circling the same theme from different angles, and here’s where I landed.

I could see this going in two ways.

When digital cameras became mainstream, photography didn’t die; it raised the bar. Anyone could take a decent photo, so standing out meant developing a sharper eye and a stronger sense of craft.

Same with calculators. Math didn’t disappear, it just moved to a higher level for younger generations once the basics were automated.

I think prompting tools are doing something similar. As the baseline rises, people will need to push further to stay ahead.

At the same time, as Jack noted, exceptional skill might be appreciated more like fine taste, especially in circles that value craft for its own sake. So it’s not just “skill is the new taste.” Elevated skill might also become the new status signal.

In our conversation, he brought up something else that stuck with me.

Widespread access doesn’t necessarily dilute craft. It can actually enrich the upper tiers of it. When more people can participate, we often see a deeper appreciation emerge for the refined, the niche, and the truly intentional. Cookbooks and cooking shows didn’t replace fine dining, they helped elevate it. Streaming didn’t kill arthouse films, it expanded their audience. MP3s and digital downloads led to a vinyl resurgence. The more accessible creation becomes, the more we seem to value what feels crafted and enduring. Democratization fuels connoisseurship.

The issue, I think, with LLMs and AI in general is that they’re impacting multiple areas all at once. Calculators, digital cameras, streaming, and mp3s all had niche appeal at first. AI prompting has a broader appeal that touches learning and knowledge, skill building, product development, social media, art, language, writing, and more.

It can feel almost impossible for us to keep up because the ground is shifting so quickly in so many places and we humans hate change. It’s overwhelming, and there’s a sense that we don’t have time to process or respond from a cultural or societal standpoint. This isn’t a shift in just one domain. It’s a global, tectonic change in how humans interact with computers, and it affects how we move through the world.

A few of us seem to be circling similar ideas from different angles. Skill, craft, and artistry all still matter. Maybe more than ever.

In a way, as AI takes on more of the process, we might be pushed or allowed to return to what makes something truly great: the art of craft.