[joshka]

The counterpoint is that building software is not building a fence. When you create something in software, nothing tangible changes until that's accepted and running on all the places that you deploy to. A PR is just a hey, here's a fence that the contributor built elsewhere that proves that building something like this is possible.

The corollary is design your open source libraries so they're obvious enough that the chesterton's gaps are obvious. Anytime an AI tool submits something that breaks your expectation of things not being necessary it usually highlights that there's a missing gap in the explanation of what is necessary.

[stephantul]

I’m not sure I share your view of PRs. I still see submitting PRs as something that puts pressure on maintainers. Even incorrect PRs take time to verify and review.

I also don’t see how this differs between the “gap” and the “fence” part of the metaphor. Whether someone submits a rewrite/removal (fence) or a new feature (gap) for PR review, it’s still going to cost me attention.

[joshka]

It's only pressure if you believe the social contract in a PR is that everything that is written is something you're obligated to read / respond to. If you flip that a bit to a PR being the first step in a way of saying "I tried a thing and it worked, what's necessary to make that an actual thing that other can use", then you will sort of land here.

Previously I wrote https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48517931