What is good code?
Functional, correct, fast.
If you’re a Mac user, you’d expect delightful to be in the mix.
But there’s more. Boring and predictable, for example. If boring code works, it’s often the best kind of code. Easy to extend, easy to fix, easy to understand.
LLMs can be great at this.
Tests ensure the code is correct, and being trained on a large corpus of data gives at least predictability and, probably because it’s averaged out across many implementations, plain boring code.
And that’s great. For code.
When writing, though? Boring and predictable writing can be described with… mediocre. Which is exactly how I’d label all the AI-generated crap that lands in my mailbox or feed—if I’m feeling generous.
If the next word or sentence is the most probable, writing becomes dull and its mission—being read—fails. Even worse, the writer comes over as a milquetoast meat proxy.
Don’t be that person.