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Dalton + MichaelDalton + Michael

Slop vs Craft

As AI tools become increasingly powerful, its easy to output a lot more output... but that doesn't mean the output is good. In this episode of Dalton + Michael, the two discuss the temptation of using the tools to create low quality software/content/startup ideas. They mention some case studies from the past, including SEO content farms as well as the risk of building a "turkey startup." There is also a higher risk for founders that being able to output reasonably sloppy prototypes has the side effect pushing more startups into pivot hell. Having high standards for what you put out in the world is a great signal for what good "taste" looks like. The way to win in a slop war is to not play, and to instead use these new tools to help solve problems for your customers better than anyone else. If you would like to see the "turkey graph" for yourself, here it is: https://x.com/paultoo/status/2028601344534454598 Dalton + Michael is brought to you by @Standard_Cap Dalton Caldwell on X: https://x.com/daltonc Michael Seibel on X: https://x.com/mwseibel

Dalton CaldwellhostMichael Seibelhost
Mar 2, 202618mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. DC

    I think you wanna stay out of a symmetric battle for who can slop harder. If there's a competitor and they're spamming a lot, and you're like, "Well, our only solution is to spam harder"-

  2. MS

    [laughs]

  3. DC

    ... and you're just in an arms race of who can create the most garbage to make the graph go up-

  4. MS

    Yeah

  5. DC

    ... I, I think don't do it.

  6. MS

    Yeah.

  7. DC

    I think you have to find a way to stay out of trying to produce the most low-quality crap. [upbeat music]

  8. MS

    This is Dalton + Michael. Today, we're gonna talk about slop versus craft.

  9. DC

    [laughs]

  10. MS

    Maybe another way to describe this is like what does it mean to have good taste? Why don't we kick this off, you and I were talking about Claude Code. You've maybe gone down the smallest of rabbit holes. How is Claude Code changing how you think about slop versus craft?

  11. DC

    Sure. So I think for context, I've been doing a fair amount of programming over the past, uh, nine months.

  12. MS

    Mm-hmm.

  13. DC

    Um, like I was messing with Cursor and Windsurf a while ago-

  14. MS

    Mm-hmm

  15. DC

    ... and it was cool, and, you know, I've been having fun with it. And then of course, Claude Code came out probably a while ago, but it, it really took off memetically-

  16. MS

    Mm-hmm

  17. DC

    ... Q4 of last year, and definitely over, like, Christmas break is when everyone-

  18. MS

    Yeah

  19. DC

    ... went nuts with it. And what I would say is it's really fun.

  20. MS

    [laughs]

  21. DC

    [laughs] It's like a video game.

  22. MS

    [laughs]

  23. DC

    And you, like, type stuff in, and it just feels powerful.

  24. MS

    Yeah.

  25. DC

    Like, you watch the screen fly by. It's like programming with the best programmer you've ever met-

  26. MS

    Mm-hmm

  27. DC

    ... who's, like, really nice and really fast.

  28. MS

    [laughs]

  29. DC

    And it's so energizing to watch the code fly by on the s- on the screen and, um, see all the tokens it's burning and just, like, you know, it's, it's super cool, so I would recommend it.

  30. MS

    Yes.

Episode duration: 18:25

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