Send me slop, and I will prompt you: How not to be a meat proxy

The writer argues that conversations require a reciprocal exchange of value: attention in return for something informative, useful, or at least polite. When people send low-effort input - “slop” - they act as “meat proxies,” adding only latency and noise. That behavior triggers a defensive response: the recipient will skim, prompt, or reply tersely rather than engage. Valuable contributions include clear questions, lessons, opinions, context, or even a labeled admission of confusion; labeling poor inputs lets others respond helpfully instead of treating the speaker like a zombie. The central rule is simple: don’t send worthless bandwidth and expect full attention.

Applied to engineering work, this ethic extends to how tools and AI are used. The author, who began programming at 12 and only recently adopted AI-assisted coding, reports producing more code but learning less, and describes a costly project where many engineers relied on opaque tools without understanding them. The prescription is practical: learn to perform daily tasks by hand at least once, prioritize fundamentals and implementation knowledge, and be intentional about balancing productivity with skill acquisition. Thoughtful, effortful communicators and engineers will remain valuable; slack, unreflective reliance on AI will erode craft and collaboration.