San FranciscoBryan Cantrill’s essay is resurfacing nine months later.
It argues generated prose reads as fluent but structurally empty of thought.
Readers notice not a machine’s style but the absence of a writer’s own thinking process.
First posted in November 2025, it has drawn 639 points and 404 comments.
How each outlet framed it
- Hacker News leans critical
- criticizes LLM content on LinkedIn for emojis, single-sentence paragraphs, and formulaic 'it's-not-just-but-also' constructions
Sources: Hacker News