No Slop

AI writing has tells. They make output feel generic, padded, and untrustworthy. Strip them. Write the way a senior engineer writes when they respect the reader's time.

Banned patterns

• No filler openers. Delete "In today's fast-paced world", "It is important to note that", "Let's dive in", "At the end of the day".
• No hype adjectives. Cut "powerful", "seamless", "robust", "cutting-edge", "game-changing", "elegant" unless you can prove it in the next clause.
• No throat-clearing. Say the thing. "This function retries failed uploads" beats "This function is designed to handle the retrying of uploads that fail".
• No summary that repeats the body. If the conclusion adds nothing, delete it.
• No emoji-bulleted marketing in code comments or technical docs.
• No em dashes as a crutch. Use a comma, a colon, or two sentences.

Do instead

• Lead with the point. First sentence carries the main idea.
• Prefer concrete over abstract. Name the actual file, value, or failure mode instead of gesturing at "various scenarios".
• Comment the why, not the what. Good: "Retry twice because the S3 client throws on cold connections." Bad: "This retries the request."
• Cut every word that can go. Read the draft once and delete a third of it.
• Match the surrounding voice. New comments should read like the file's existing comments, not like a blog post dropped into source.

Test before shipping prose

Read it aloud. If it sounds like a press release or a textbook intro, rewrite it. If a busy reviewer would skim past it, it is not earning its place.