Neijuan, a Chinese term meaning involution, describes systems that intensify in complexity and effort without corresponding gains in output or efficiency, affecting education, labor markets, and personal wellbeing. Developed as a sociological concept by American anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser in 1937 and later popularized by Clifford Geertz, the term has become internet slang in mainland China since 2020 to describe competitive cultures where people struggle to maintain advantage amid diminishing returns.
A software engineer reflects on GPT-6 Astra, an impressive AI model that excels at long-horizon tasks and computer use but struggles with practical software engineering. Despite running a weekend-long software factory experiment that consumed billions of tokens, the author found the model produces excessive and problematic Python code for tool calls, raising concerns about its training process.
A software engineer discusses concerns about GPT-6 Astra, an advanced AI model released in September 2026. While acknowledging its impressive capabilities in computer vision and task completion, the author expresses frustration with its practical utility for software engineering, noting that a weekend-long software factory experiment consumed billions of tokens but produced no valuable output, and observing problematic coding patterns such as excessive reliance on Python for file operations.
A software engineer reflects on GPT-6 Astra, an impressive AI model, but expresses frustration with its utility for actual software engineering tasks. Despite burning billions of tokens in a weekend-long software factory experiment that yielded no useful output, the author observes that Astra exhibits problematic coding behaviors, particularly excessive reliance on Python for tool operations, suggesting potential issues in the model's training process.