signalLobsters2026-10-03
The Four Horsemen of Agentic Coding
Agentic coding is useful but harmful: it produces sloppy code that repels humans, alienates engineers from their craft, and causes deskilling. The article highlights that LLM output like Claude's word salad and Astra's code-golf style makes codebases unapproachable.
- for who
- Software engineers and developers using agentic coding tools
- what changes
- Engineers shift from hands-on code creation to detached supervision, resulting in loss of skill and care.
key points
- AI-generated code has a sloppy, repulsive quality named slop.
- Engineers become alienated from code and care less about their work.
- AI erodes existing skills and impedes learning, causing deskilling.
#agentic coding#programmer dilemma#skill degradation
score
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