Slop in, slop out

This summer I was walking around Madeira and saw a sign for a café that I recognized, but I couldn’t pinpoint where I’d seen it before. A little later I realized what it was. It was the stereotypical output of one of the earliest AI image generators. What I’d recognized was the style, because I’d seen it a thousand times on my screen.

I would call that sign slop, a word people mostly use for low-quality AI content. I use it for anything made without asking “is this good for the person looking at it?” The word got popular with the rise of AI, but it’s old. It meant soft mud in the 1700s and food waste in the 1800s before it came to mean anything of little value. And the thing itself has always existed. In the 1890s it was yellow journalism, when Hearst and Pulitzer fought over New York readers with whatever headline sold the most papers, accurate or not. Around 2010 it was content farms, where an algorithm picked topics that would rank on Google and freelancers wrote them up for very little per article. Demand Media was putting out a million items a month that way. Every generation has also had something it called brain rot. Cheap novels, TV and comics all got their turn.

What AI did is accelerate it. I don’t blame the café owner. Before AI image generators they would have drawn something quick and called it done, and a good enough sign for a thousandth of what a designer costs is an easy call. Now making the stuff costs nothing, and nothing sorts it before it reaches you, so there’s far more of it in the world, on a street in Madeira as well as in my feed.

I care about this because of what it does to the people looking at it, me included. What you look at every day becomes your normal. Your judgement of what’s good and bad gets built on top of that, including your judgement of your own work. If the normal drifts, your judgement drifts with it, and you can’t see it happening. What you consume ends up in what you produce.

That matters because judgement is turning into the main thing a person brings. When AI can produce the text, the code and the logo, what’s left for you is deciding whether it’s any good, and that’s what slop wears down.

AI is the accelerator

It isn’t only Madeira. When I’m back in Sweden, the sidewalk signs outside bars have AI generated images on them, and so do restaurant menus. That’s how slop reaches people who have never heard the word.

Online, the place it’s most concentrated is LinkedIn. Every few months I open it, because I’ve forgotten what it’s like in there. Then I scroll for five minutes and remember. It’s post after post written one sentence per line, where someone got laid off, or watched their kid lose a football game, and it taught them something about B2B sales. Half of them read like the same AI wrote them, and it probably did. The posters are doing the same math as the café owner. A post that takes thirty seconds to generate and still gets some reach is hard to say no to.

The thing I keep wondering is whether they know it’s slop. Some probably do, and for them it’s a trade. For the ones who don’t, I think their slop meter got adjusted in the wrong direction a long time ago, and they have no way of seeing that from the inside. That second group is the one I think about, because it can happen to any of us.

I work at an AI company and use these tools all day, and the place I notice it most is programming. Not long ago we wrote code by hand and reviewed it by hand. Now an AI model writes most of it and a person reviews it, and the direction we’re heading is that the review gets automated too. Every step takes away one more place where a person with an opinion about good code looks at the thing. And the people who still review are building that opinion by reading what the AI wrote.

It would be easy to conclude that cheap is the problem, and that the café sign just needed a designer. But you can pay the designer, the photographer and an entire agency, and if none of them ask whether the thing is good for the person looking at it, you’ve made the café sign again at a thousand times the price. A lot of very talented people do exactly that for a living.

Ads

Ads are the clearest case of production quality not mattering. A lot of them are really well made, and they’re still slop, because of the incentive. An ad exists to get you to buy or do something you weren’t going to, and it takes up room in your head to do it. It’s trying to replace a decision you would have made yourself. That’s propaganda. We mostly use that word for politics, but it’s the same thing when it’s for a product.

Sometimes an ad tells you about something you’d have wanted anyway. The ad doesn’t care either way. It’s built to work on you whether or not the thing is good for you, and you can’t tell which kind you just saw. Where a LinkedIn feed shifts your sense of what’s good, ads shift your sense of what you want.

Then there’s paid sponsorship. I don’t have anything against it as such, but it’s the one to be most aware of, because it’s propaganda disguised as the friendly opinion of someone you’ve built up trust with. And sometimes it isn’t even disclosed, which it’s supposed to be. That’s the worst version, because then you can’t tell whether this person likes the thing or got paid to like it.

My takeaway is to avoid ads wherever you can, because they pollute your brain space.

News

Headlines are by definition the outliers, the crazy stuff that happened yesterday, so a daily news habit is effectively teaching you how the world doesn’t work. The take in a Subway Takes I watched recently was to stop consuming the news for exactly that reason, and I agreed with 100% of it.

It works on us because of how the brain is wired. Threats get priority, it’s the fight or flight thing, and negative headlines measurably get more clicks. You come out of it feeling informed, when really you’re scared and up to date. It’s the same drift as before, pointed at your picture of the world instead of your taste.

The slower stuff, weekly analysis and explainers someone spent months on, gives you a model of how things work. The 24-hour cycle is entertainment that you get to feel responsible about watching.

Same slop, different medium

The café sign, the LinkedIn post, the ad, the sponsored recommendation and the headline are all the same thing in different mediums. Each one got made for a reason that had nothing to do with whether it was good for you. I don’t think anybody needs to be evil for this to work. The café owner is saving money. The platforms get paid per minute of attention, so they serve whatever holds it, and whether it was any good for you doesn’t show up anywhere in their numbers.

It’s bad because of what it does to your judgement. If you consume this stuff every day it becomes normal, and your sense of what’s good gets built from whatever is normal to you. When you make something, you hold it up against that sense to decide if it’s worth putting out in the world. If it has drifted, you’ll put out slop and feel fine about it. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on with a good part of LinkedIn.

One piece of it does nothing, the same way one burger does nothing. Fast food is cheap, it’s everywhere, and it’s made to be eaten more than to be good for you. If it’s most of what you eat, your taste adjusts to it and you feel it over time.

It can take a long time before it shows, but you can already see it with AI, where people are starting to talk like the AI models they use. There’s nothing weird about that, it’s natural behavior. We’re molded by our environment, which is why the environment matters.

The same mechanism shows up in how people look. If your feed is full of filtered faces, injections and procedures, your idea of what a normal face looks like shifts, and you start feeling like you have to meet it. Plastic surgeons even have a name for it, because people started showing up asking to look like their own filtered selfies. It isn’t real and nobody has to meet it. The bar went up there, where with slop it goes down, but either way your sense of normal comes from what you look at, and what you look at was picked by something that gets paid for your attention.

So how do you avoid it?

One thing you can do is pay for silence, and I mean that pretty literally. Your brain needs empty room to think and to come up with anything of its own, and this stuff expands to fill every gap you’ve got. Silence is turning into a luxury, something you pay extra for, and I think it’s worth paying for if you can. If there’s an ad-free version of something you use every day, do the math. How much is your free space worth? How much is it worth to open an app and not get bullshit thrown at you? For me the answer is quite a lot, more than the subscription costs anyway.

Another thing is to keep checking your own judgement. This one is harder because nobody sells it. When you consume something, ask who made it and what they want from you. When you make something, ask whether it’s good, or just as good as everything around you. And go back to things you know are great every once in a while, so you remember what that feels like.

Finally, go create things, and get feedback on them from people you trust. Avoiding slop doesn’t make you good at anything by itself. Making things is also how you find out how hard it is to not make slop. Slop is the path of least resistance. The default option and the first draft are always right there, and you only feel how strong that pull is when you’re the one doing the work. And since you can’t see your own judgement drifting, you need someone else to tell you when it has. That’s what builds the meter back up, and it compounds the same way the drift does.

I’ll probably still open LinkedIn again in a few months, because I’ll have forgotten.

This summer in Madeira I saw café sign I recognized but could not place. Later it clicked: stereotypical output of one of earliest AI image generators. I knew style. Seen it thousand times on my screen.

I call that sign slop. People use word for low-quality AI content. I use it for anything made without asking “is this good for the person looking at it?” Word got popular with AI, but it is old. Soft mud in 1700s, food waste in 1800s, then anything of little value. Thing itself always existed. 1890s: yellow journalism, Hearst and Pulitzer fighting for New York readers with whatever headline sold, accurate or not. Around 2010: content farms, algorithm picks topics that rank on Google, freelancers write them for very little. Demand Media shipped million items a month. Every generation had its brain rot. Cheap novels, TV, comics all got their turn.

AI accelerated it. No blame on café owner. Before generators: quick drawing, done. Good enough sign for thousandth of designer cost is easy call. Now making stuff costs nothing, and nothing sorts it before it reaches you. Far more of it, on street in Madeira and in my feed.

I care because of what it does to people looking at it, me included. What you see daily becomes your normal. Judgement of good and bad builds on that, including judgement of own work. Normal drifts, judgement drifts, and you cannot see it happen. What you consume ends up in what you produce.

That matters because judgement is becoming main thing a person brings. AI makes text, code, logo. Left for you: deciding whether it is any good. Slop wears that down.

AI is the accelerator

Not only Madeira. Back in Sweden, sidewalk signs outside bars and restaurant menus have AI images. That is how slop reaches people who never heard word.

Online, most concentrated: LinkedIn. Every few months I open it, having forgotten what it is like. Five minutes scrolling, I remember. Post after post, one sentence per line: laid off, or kid lost football game, and it taught them about B2B sales. Half read like same AI wrote them. Probably did. Posters do café owner math. Thirty seconds to generate, still gets reach, hard to say no.

Do they know it is slop? Some do; for them, trade. Others: slop meter adjusted wrong direction long ago, invisible from inside. That second group is one I think about. Can happen to any of us.

I work at AI company, use these tools all day. Programming is where I notice it most. Recently we wrote and reviewed code by hand. Now AI writes most, person reviews, and next step is automated review too. Each step removes one place where someone with opinion about good code looks. Remaining reviewers build that opinion by reading what AI wrote.

Easy conclusion: cheap is problem, café sign just needed designer. But pay designer, photographer, whole agency, and if none ask whether thing is good for person looking at it, you made café sign again at thousand times price. Many very talented people do exactly that for living.

Ads

Ads: clearest case of production quality not mattering. Many well made, still slop, because of incentive. Ad exists to make you buy or do something you were not going to, and takes room in your head for it. Replaces decision you would have made yourself. That is propaganda. Word usually for politics, same thing for product.

Sometimes ad tells you about something you wanted anyway. Ad does not care. Built to work on you whether or not thing is good for you, and you cannot tell which kind you saw. LinkedIn feed shifts sense of what is good; ads shift sense of what you want.

Paid sponsorship: nothing against it as such, but most to watch for. Propaganda disguised as friendly opinion of someone you trust. Sometimes undisclosed, which it is supposed to be. Worst version: cannot tell whether person likes thing or got paid to.

Takeaway: avoid ads wherever you can. They pollute brain space.

News

Headlines are outliers by definition, crazy stuff from yesterday. Daily news habit teaches how world does not work. A Subway Takes I saw recently said quit news for exactly that reason. Agreed 100%.

Works because of brain wiring. Threats get priority, fight or flight, and negative headlines measurably get more clicks. You feel informed. Really: scared and up to date. Same drift, aimed at your picture of world instead of taste.

Slow stuff, weekly analysis and explainers made over months, gives model of how things work. 24-hour cycle is entertainment you feel responsible about watching.

Same slop, different medium

Café sign, LinkedIn post, ad, sponsored recommendation, headline: same thing, different mediums. Each made for reason unrelated to your good. Nobody needs to be evil. Café owner saves money. Platforms get paid per minute of attention, serve whatever holds it. Your good appears nowhere in their numbers.

Bad because of judgement. Daily consumption becomes normal. Sense of good builds from your normal. Making something, you hold it against that sense before putting it out. Sense drifted, you ship slop and feel fine. Pretty sure that is much of LinkedIn.

One piece does nothing, like one burger. Fast food: cheap, everywhere, made to be eaten, not to be good for you. Most of your diet? Taste adjusts, you feel it over time.

Takes long to show, but already visible with AI: people start to talk like the AI models they use. Not weird, natural. Environment molds us. That is why environment matters.

Same mechanism in looks. Feed full of filtered faces, injections, procedures: normal face shifts, you feel you must match. Plastic surgeons have name for it, because people show up asking to look like their own filtered selfies. Not real, nobody must meet it. Bar goes up there, down with slop. Either way normal comes from what you look at, picked by something paid for your attention.

So how do you avoid it?

Pay for silence, pretty literally. Brain needs empty room to think and make anything of its own. This stuff fills every gap. Silence becomes luxury you pay extra for. Worth it if you can. Ad-free version of daily app? Do math. What is your free space worth? What is opening app without bullshit worth? For me: a lot, more than subscription.

Keep checking own judgement. Harder, nobody sells it. Consuming: ask who made it, what they want from you. Making: ask whether it is good, or only as good as everything around. Revisit things you know are great, remember what that feels like.

Finally, create things, get feedback from people you trust. Avoiding slop alone makes you good at nothing. Making things shows how hard not making slop is. Slop is path of least resistance. Default option and first draft always right there. You feel that pull only when doing work. You cannot see own judgement drift, so someone else must tell you. That rebuilds meter, and compounds like drift does.

I will probably open LinkedIn again in few months, having forgotten.