Matt Pocock(@mattpocockuk):We used to talk about a "pit of success". Humans would be dragged towards writing the right code by well-designed API's, a good test suite, sensible lint rules. You couldn't make the pit too steep, otherwise the humans would get annoyed. There was a social contract. Feels like what we need now is a black hole of success. An inescapable event horizon agents cannot cross. Agents don't feel annoyed, so you can crank up the pressure to infinity. There is no social contract to break. In other words, increase the forces on agents to the maximum. Make great code inevitable.

2026.10.28 09:01

We used to talk about a "pit of success". Humans would be dragged towards writing the right code by well-designed API's, a good test suite, sensible lint rules. You couldn't make the pit too steep, otherwise the humans would get annoyed. There was a social contract. Feels like what we need now is a black hole of success. An inescapable event horizon agents cannot cross. Agents don't feel annoyed, so you can crank up the pressure to infinity. There is no social contract to break. In other words, increase the forces on agents to the maximum. Make great code inevitable.

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