Astra for Coding: Why Are We Doing This Again? | Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings

Some thoughts on Astra and newfangled long-horizon models.

written on September 07, 2026 I’m more and more convinced that all of AI engineering is Neijuan (内卷, meaning curl inwards). In China it describes a system that demands ever more effort and competition without improving output. The way in which it sometimes shows up in the West is the 996 nonsense. The English term for Neijuan is “Involution” from the book Agricultural Involution. Agricultural involution describes the intensification of farming that raises productivity per square meter while leaving productivity per head unchanged. That’s how I feel about AI right now. Which brings me to…

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