Beautiful arrows shot into the air — on taste without domain expertise.
A pattern I keep seeing in pitches: the deck is gorgeous, the framing is sharp, the model has been clearly well‑prompted. But the arrow is shot into the air — there is no target. Taste without domain depth produces this exact failure shape, and now AI makes it cheaper than ever to produce.
Draft in progress
What this short note will cover.
- The origin of the line — a thing I said in a meeting that crystallised what I'd been seeing for months.
- Three recent founder pitches I've sat in on where the slide quality was first‑decile and the proposition was almost entirely incoherent on second look.
- Why this is uniquely an AI‑era pathology — the model gives you taste fluency without forcing you to do the domain reps.
- The diagnostic I now use: ask the founder a question only an operator who's lived in the category for five years can answer. Watch what happens.
- The fix is unglamorous — go work in the category. There is no shortcut. (See also: Domain expertise, taste, AI fluency.)
— Full note coming. The line stands on its own; the longer version explains why I keep using it.
— Lucas, January 2026