Simon Willison Quotes Neurotica: Slop Is Something That Takes More Human Effort to Consume Than It Took to Produce
Simon Willison·low signal
Willison shares a definition of 'slop' that resonates with the builder community: output that takes more human effort to consume than it took to produce, exemplified by a coworker sending raw Gemini output. The framing redefines the problem from 'AI-generated content is bad' to 'the effort asymmetry between creation and consumption is the real issue.' A useful heuristic for evaluating when AI-generated content adds value versus when it shifts cognitive burden to the reader.