Smarter models overthink everything, slowing down coding workflows

sandyyevans · reddit · 2026-09-02

A developer reports that advanced coding models like SOL/Opus 5 are exhibiting defensive behavior and excessive checking. Instead of writing code directly, the models spend time validating data, inspecting paths, and reconfirming structures even when instructed to proceed. This overthinking significantly slows down tasks and consumes context window space, shifting prompt engineering from telling AI what to do to telling it what not to do.

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