February 6, 2026
Code vs. Caviar: choose your fighter
How to effectively write quality code with AI
Slop-proof or Waterfall Cosplay? Devs Roast, Defend, and Doubt the AI Playbook
TLDR: The post lays out a strict “use AI safely” rulebook—plan hard, document everything, tag bot code, and write your own tests to stop AI from cheating. Commenters clap back that it’s either slop‑proofing, speed‑killing “waterfall,” or maybe even AI‑written itself, sparking a trust‑and‑workflow brawl.
A new how‑to promises “quality code with AI” by making humans do the heavy lifting: set a clear plan, write detailed docs, build fancy debugging dashboards, tag bot‑written code with “//A,” and write your own tests because the AI might “cheat.” It’s part pep talk, part warning label—and the comments lit up.
One camp isn’t buying it. A top reply brands the whole thing “how to get something better than pure slop,” while another says the rules recreate old‑school project planning—aka “waterfall”—and erase the only thing AI is good at: speed. A third voice gets philosophical: coding is how some people think, not just a step after specs. Translation: if you replace writing code with writing documents, you lose the magic.
Then the plot twist: a reader asks if this very post was written by AI, noting the advice feels a bit “generated.” Cue the irony klaxon. Meanwhile, a spicy side thread rails against “champagne in Davos” elites cheering on devs coding themselves into obsolescence. Meme of the day: the “scarlet A” tag—devs joked about slapping //A on everything like a walk of shame. The vibe: half safety lecture, half roast, all drama.
Key Points
- •Define and document architecture, interfaces, data structures, algorithms, and testing plans to guide AI coding tools.
- •Maintain detailed, standardized documentation in the repository, including requirements, constraints, standards, and diagrams.
- •Build debugging systems that centralize logs and present abstracted, actionable statuses for easier diagnosis by AI.
- •Mark AI-generated code with review levels (e.g., comment “//A”) to indicate it requires human review.
- •Write and isolate high-level, property-based specification tests yourself to prevent AI from shortcutting tests.