Agentic Coding's Four Horsemen: Slop, Alienation, Deskilling, and Isolation

The Four Horsemen of Agentic Coding

Agentic coding is undeniably useful, but it's also wreaking havoc on software engineering. LLM-generated code has a distinctive 'slop' smell that makes codebases repulsive to humans. Engineers become alienated from their craft, caring less about the code they produce. AI erodes existing skills and impedes learning, with no meaningful skill progression. And agents weaken team social bonds by reducing interpersonal communication and increasing self-reliance. The author sees no solution in sight.