What a Microsoft & Apple Veteran Taught Me About Software Taste

Many engineers agree that when AI can do the work, what still matters is taste and judgment. That judgment used to be built by doing the reps, but right now AI is taking the reps. The old path up is disappearing. So I'm talking with people who already have it, and asking them to show how they got there, and how they developed their judgment so you can build yours faster than they did. First up is David Monk. He was at Microsoft for twelve years, four at Apple, and he's thought harder about software quality than anyone I've talked to. His opening line was "MVP is ruining everything," so we started there. We get into why the minimum viable product was meant to be a waypoint and became a destination, what "artisanal software" would even look like, why he'd rather hire a junior who can communicate than a 10x engineer who can't, the AI that hit perfect accuracy by reading a watermark instead of the X-ray, and that AI doesn't remove friction. It moves it. — Guest: David Monk —   / davidhmonk   https://github.com/davmonk Dave Monk is available to hire as a consultant for QA solutions and workflow optimization, contact through LinkedIn is encouraged 🎧 The Artisanal Engineer — conversations on where taste comes from ▶ Subscribe:    • Video   Host: Jeff Kolez 25 years building software across the stack, now feeling the same shift everyone else is. This show is me learning in public from the people whose judgment I trust. LinkedIn:   / jeffkolesnikowicz   Work with me: https://hirejeff.tech/ 💬 Know someone who obviously has taste and can tell me where they got it? Send them my way. — 0:00 The horror movie you don't know you're in 0:17 Where does taste come from? 1:00 "MVP is ruining everything" 3:55 Artisanal software (the cheese test) 5:30 Craft vs. payday: the tension every builder feels 6:30 When are you allowed to stop testing? 7:30 Studs without drywall 8:40 Attacking your own codebase with an LLM 9:25 You don't need to outrun the bear 15:00 "What have you done to my boy?" (Windows 11) 16:10 Software that's a joy to use 18:00 The daily bug show 20:40 "I don't want to be a sysadmin in my own house" 20:55 The QA guy who walked across the hall — and got a jacket 24:50 People in a horror movie don't know they're in one 27:05 Why he'd hire a junior over a 10x 29:00 Channel your inner Chad 30:20 How to be right without losing the room 33:15 Why he escapes to Maine 34:50 Test as Susan, not as an engineer 35:45 AI removes old friction — and brings new friction 38:10 The AI that read the watermark, not the X-ray 39:15 What I landed on