Like most folks, I’ve been using The Models ¹ to write code now for the better part of a year. My process has changed over the course of the last few months, partly because the models are getting better at executing on the tasks I set them, but mostly because the gap between what the models enable and the systems for controlling context we all live in is growing, and growing at an ever-increasing rate.

✅

You open the PR. You blanch at the 10,000-line diff. You leave a fussy comment, so everyone knows you’re Paying Attention. You click Approve; the green checkmark appears. Everything keeps trundling along.

The ritual is complete.

The phrase “code review” flatters the practice. In most organizations it means little more than ritualized exposure to a textual delta followed by institutional assent. The green checkmark is not judgment. It is a surrogate for judgment.