The Optimal Amount of Slop Is Non-Zero

Slater's latest post makes a counterintuitive case: the optimal amount of slop isn't zero. We've been treating slop like a disease — AI-generated articles, auto-drafted newsletters, the endless stream of content that barely passes the "someone typed this" test. But the argument is that you want some slop, just not too much.

The real insight is practical. When you're building something, shipping something that's 80% good beats waiting for 100%. When you're curating, a few sloppy posts are fine. The problem isn't slop itself — it's slop that's all slop. We're in the middle of a massive shift in how content gets made, and the people who get this will have an advantage in figuring out what's worth their time.

Why this matters for us: la gente who can tell the difference between slop and substance will have more power in a content landscape that's getting noisier every day.