I get what she is saying. Historically, you have - Human slop cannon - People who think all code should be Good Code, who are very useful because of talent but requiring management because of the constant desire to boil the ocean / move at the speed of a snail - People who think important (seams, data modeling, rules engines, stuff like that) code should be Good Code, and its fine if other code is slop The most valuable persona is the third. The first will destroy a business due to overrunning tech debt, the second will tank a business due to neverending refinement. The third understands those forces need to be kept in balance. I have a huge amount of respect for Lauren, I know folks who have worked with her and say she is absolute top tier. I know she spent a huge amount of time and effort working through Dune for example. There was probably a non trivial amount of code involved there, and it probably is the kind of thing that needed to be Good Code. "Slop is a slur" I think is cope. "Most code in the before-times was slop and that was ok" I think is reasonable and defensible. "All code is slop" I think is an overreach, and dismisses a very important part of this conversation.