Generation Is Cheap, Review Is Expensive: How to Stop Shipping AI Slop — Gabriel Martinez, G2i
AI-assisted coding accelerates 'hackwork' by hiding the ambiguity engineers must confront to build well.
“A hack is a result that appears complete before the thinking is complete.”
Gabriel Martinez argues that AI generation doesn't create slop — lack of engineering judgment does, and AI simply accelerates it. The core danger is that smoothed-out AI output hides the ambiguity, edge cases, and architectural choices that engineers must actively wrestle with to build reliable systems. He calls on engineers to slow down, own decisions, and stop treating the merge button as the finish line.