# In a craft market, the moat is taste, not engineering

- Category: mindset
- Author: Ionut F. (https://indie.md/people/ionut/)
- Source: https://indie.md/journeys/ionut-laura/
- Canonical URL: https://indie.md/advice/compete-on-taste-not-tech/

The defensible part of Laura is not the code, it is the sound: a recognizable character and the trust producers place in the Lost Synapse name. In creative tools, taste and craft are the moat, because the underlying engineering is increasingly available to everyone. If you compete in a market where the output is judged by feel (audio, design, writing tools), invest in developing a recognizable point of view, not just shipping features. The taste is the part that compounds and the part nobody can fork.