@Gregorein: so... I audited Garry's websit...
@Gregorein
27 views
Apr 04, 2026
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1
so... I audited Garry's website after he bragged about 37K LOC/day and a 72-day shipping streak.
here's what 78,400 lines of AI slop code actually looks like in production.
a single homepage load of garryslist.org downloads 6.42 MB across 169 requests.
for a newsletter-blog-thingy.
1/9🧵
here's what 78,400 lines of AI slop code actually looks like in production.
a single homepage load of garryslist.org downloads 6.42 MB across 169 requests.
for a newsletter-blog-thingy.
1/9🧵
View Tweet
2
the homepage ships 28 TEST FILES to every visitor.
not test results - actual test harnesses.
membership_form_controller.test (89 KB), media_grid_controller.test (31 KB), story_composer_controller.test (19 KB)
...
300 KB of test code. All returning HTTP 200. All actively downloaded. HAR file doesn't lie.
2/9🧵
not test results - actual test harnesses.
membership_form_controller.test (89 KB), media_grid_controller.test (31 KB), story_composer_controller.test (19 KB)
...
300 KB of test code. All returning HTTP 200. All actively downloaded. HAR file doesn't lie.
2/9🧵
3
it also downloads 78 Stimulus controller, including...
AI image generation
voice extraction
video generation
radar charts
draft review
lab evaluation
and the literal Rails "Hello World" scaffold (`hello_controller.js`, 157 bytes).
154 KB transferred. None of these are used on the homepage. The browser fetches all of them anyway.
3/9🧵
AI image generation
voice extraction
video generation
radar charts
draft review
lab evaluation
and the literal Rails "Hello World" scaffold (`hello_controller.js`, 157 bytes).
154 KB transferred. None of these are used on the homepage. The browser fetches all of them anyway.
3/9🧵
4
the logo situation is my favorite 🖤
the same bear gets downloaded... 8 times per page load: 3 png copies, 2 WebP variants, 2 AVIF variants, and a 512x512 favicon.
one of the AVIF files is 0 bytes. an empty file. a failed image conversion that got deployed and served to production.
total logo bandwidth: 654kb for two logos.
4/9🧵
the same bear gets downloaded... 8 times per page load: 3 png copies, 2 WebP variants, 2 AVIF variants, and a 512x512 favicon.
one of the AVIF files is 0 bytes. an empty file. a failed image conversion that got deployed and served to production.
total logo bandwidth: 654kb for two logos.
4/9🧵
5
but the real bandwidth killer are article images served from CloudFront as raw, uncompressed PNGs:
- Image 1: 2.07mb png
- Image 2: 1.99mb png
...
the browser sends
> Accept: image/avif, image/webp
explicitly asking for modern formats
the server ignores it and sends 4mb of raw PNG.
with WebP these would be 200-400kb combined. That's 4mb of waste from two images alone.
5/9🧵
- Image 1: 2.07mb png
- Image 2: 1.99mb png
...
the browser sends
> Accept: image/avif, image/webp
explicitly asking for modern formats
the server ignores it and sends 4mb of raw PNG.
with WebP these would be 200-400kb combined. That's 4mb of waste from two images alone.
5/9🧵
6
more highlights from the audit
- 520 KB Trix rich text editor (120kb transferred) loaded on a read-only homepage (a spillover from a backend?)
- 47 images with empty `alt=""`... on a "civic engagement" site
- the entire page content rendered TWICE in the DOM (mobile + desktop)
- duplicate tags in the <head><br>- an empty CSS file (just a manifest comment, content-hashed and served)<br>- PostHog analytics proxied through `/s/` to... bypass ad blockers, as his own source code comment says so<br><br>6/9🧵</div><div class="mt-3 mb-2 w-full"><div class="w-full"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvMEqFaAAAPmhd.png" onclick="event.preventDefault(); openLightbox('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvMEqFaAAAPmhd.png')" class="block rounded-2xl overflow-hidden shadow-sm hover:opacity-95 transition-opacity"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvMEqFaAAAPmhd.png" class="w-full max-h-[500px] object-cover" alt="Media image" loading="lazy"></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="mb-8 relative"><div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row"><div class="flex-shrink-0 text-base-content/30 text-sm font-bold mb-2 sm:mb-0 sm:pr-4 pt-1" style="min-width: 30px;">
7
</div><div class="flex-grow min-w-0"><div class="text-lg leading-relaxed [&_a]:underline [&_a]:underline-offset-4 [&_a]:text-primary hover:[&_a]:text-primary-focus">The source code literally contains this comment:<br><br>```<br>// Load SDK from our proxy (bypasses ad blockers)<br>```<br><br>A 501(c)(4) nonprofit "civic engagement organization" actively circumventing its readers' privacy tools to track them harder.<br><br>while shipping test files, a 0-byte broken image, and 4 MB of raw PNGs to production.<br><br>7/9🧵</div><div class="mt-3 mb-2 w-full"><div class="w-full"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvM5B8WgAAHE-j.png" onclick="event.preventDefault(); openLightbox('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvM5B8WgAAHE-j.png')" class="block rounded-2xl overflow-hidden shadow-sm hover:opacity-95 transition-opacity"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvM5B8WgAAHE-j.png" class="w-full max-h-[500px] object-cover" alt="Media image" loading="lazy"></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="mb-8 relative"><div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row"><div class="flex-shrink-0 text-base-content/30 text-sm font-bold mb-2 sm:mb-0 sm:pr-4 pt-1" style="min-width: 30px;">
8
</div><div class="flex-grow min-w-0"><div class="text-lg leading-relaxed [&_a]:underline [&_a]:underline-offset-4 [&_a]:text-primary hover:[&_a]:text-primary-focus">for context: the Hacker News homepage, run by Y Combinator, Garry's own org, makes 7 requests and transfers 12kb<br><br>Garry's page makes 169 requests and transfers 6.42mb<br>562x heavier<br><br>even discounting images, 73% of the bandwidth is waste.<br><br>one could say it's a HAR truth.<br><br>8/9🧵 </div><div class="mt-3 mb-2 w-full"><div class="w-full"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvQJj1WUAA8k06.png" onclick="event.preventDefault(); openLightbox('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvQJj1WUAA8k06.png')" class="block rounded-2xl overflow-hidden shadow-sm hover:opacity-95 transition-opacity"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvQJj1WUAA8k06.png" class="w-full max-h-[500px] object-cover" alt="Media image" loading="lazy"></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="mb-8 relative"><div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row"><div class="flex-shrink-0 text-base-content/30 text-sm font-bold mb-2 sm:mb-0 sm:pr-4 pt-1" style="min-width: 30px;">
9
</div><div class="flex-grow min-w-0"><div class="text-lg leading-relaxed [&_a]:underline [&_a]:underline-offset-4 [&_a]:text-primary hover:[&_a]:text-primary-focus">AI & llms are an incredible tool, i use them every day... even burned over 3 billion tokens last year (2.5 in cursor alone)<br><br>but AI amplifies whatever process you feed it - including no process at all. Garry's site is what happens when you replace code review with a shipping streak counter.<br><br>A Duolingo streak for `git push` 🔥<br><br>the automatons did exactly what they were told. nobody told them to stop.<br><br>---<br><br>this is a client-side audit only, of what the browser downloads. i didn't read a single line of the source slop. idc, qed 🧵</div><div class="mt-3 mb-2 w-full"><div class="w-full"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvOqSyacAAUoKE.png" onclick="event.preventDefault(); openLightbox('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvOqSyacAAUoKE.png')" class="block rounded-2xl overflow-hidden shadow-sm hover:opacity-95 transition-opacity"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvOqSyacAAUoKE.png" class="w-full max-h-[500px] object-cover" alt="Media image" loading="lazy"></a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="mb-8 relative"><div class="flex flex-col sm:flex-row"><div class="flex-shrink-0 text-base-content/30 text-sm font-bold mb-2 sm:mb-0 sm:pr-4 pt-1" style="min-width: 30px;">
10
</div><div class="flex-grow min-w-0"><div class="text-lg leading-relaxed [&_a]:underline [&_a]:underline-offset-4 [&_a]:text-primary hover:[&_a]:text-primary-focus">for added context: when a 17yo developer (@xiaonweb) politely pointed out that bragging about LOC is silly, Garry's response was to publicly call them a "clout farmer."<br><br>the "clout farming" teen... wrote a browser engine in Rust at 17. HTML tokenizer, CSS cascade, box model layout, GPU renderer via wgpu, and published a technical breakdown showing deeper understanding of how the web works than most senior engineers I've worked with (including me, cos I've never dug that low-level).<br><br>vs<br><br>the "shipping" guy, the president of Y Combinator, a multi-billion dollar startup kingmaker, who mass-generates code with 113 Claude sessions a week, counts lines like a Duolingo streak, and ships test files, 0-byte AVIFs, and 4 MB uncompressed PNGs to production.<br><br>right, punch down at a teenager. on main @.<br><br><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://x.com/xiaonweb/status/2038628538870551007" rel="nofollow">View Tweet</a></blockquote></div><div class="mt-3 mb-2 w-full"><div class="w-full"><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvSH37WcAEKWwI.png" onclick="event.preventDefault(); openLightbox('https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvSH37WcAEKWwI.png')" class="block rounded-2xl overflow-hidden shadow-sm hover:opacity-95 transition-opacity"><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HEvSH37WcAEKWwI.png" class="w-full max-h-[500px] object-cover" alt="Media image" loading="lazy"></a></div></div></div></div></div><!-- Sticky bottom signup bar --><div id="stickySignupBar" class="fixed bottom-0 left-0 right-0 shadow-2xl py-3 px-4 hidden z-50" style="background: rgba(0,0,0,0.9); backdrop-filter: blur(10px);"><div class="max-w-6xl mx-auto flex items-center justify-between gap-3"><div class="flex items-center gap-2 text-white"><i data-lucide="bookmark" class="w-4 h-4"></i><span class="text-sm font-semibold hidden sm:inline">Save this thread — create a free account</span><span class="text-sm font-semibold sm:hidden">Save this thread</span></div><div class="flex gap-2 flex-shrink-0"><a href="/register/" class="btn btn-primary btn-sm rounded-full px-4 gap-1"><i data-lucide="user-plus" class="w-3 h-3"></i> Sign Up
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- 520 KB Trix rich text editor (120kb transferred) loaded on a read-only homepage (a spillover from a backend?)
- 47 images with empty `alt=""`... on a "civic engagement" site
- the entire page content rendered TWICE in the DOM (mobile + desktop)
- duplicate