Bryan Cantrill rails against LLM-authored writing: 78% of devs stop reading on sight
mgill25 · x · 2026-09-06
Oxide co-founder Bryan Cantrill published "The revolt of the reader," a blistering critique of LLM-authored writing from a reader's perspective.
- Readers can tell: to well-read people, the structural tells of LLM writing are glaring — "as if the writer's intellectual fly is open." He suspects LLM-assisted authors either don't read enough to notice the tells or don't even read their own published pieces.
- Readers care: citing Cynthia Dunlop's survey of 668 developers, 78% say they "stop reading immediately" upon detecting LLM-written content, with lasting damage to the author's credibility.
- His pointed question to those publishing under LLM-written bylines: do you think readers can't tell, or don't care? Both answers are no.
This post is mgill25 retweeting Cantrill's blog article.
Related event: Bryan Cantrill Slams LLM-Written Content in "The Revolt of the Reader"(3 posts)→
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