# Lauren Tan argues adversarial code reviews waste tokens versus empirical testing

> Original title: maybe a hot take but i now consider adversarial reviews mostly a waste of tokens. far better to use those tokens on empirical combined wi...

- Source: Lauren Tan
- Published: 2026-11-03T02:04:00.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/zqw3rgfn53y5uegw7hsj42qh1
- Original: https://x.com/poteto/status/2117437607940681849

## Summary

Lauren Tan (@poteto) says adversarial reviews are mostly a waste of tokens and that those tokens are better spent on empirical testing combined with formal verification. She has reduced use of her pstack interrogate skill and may remove it entirely. She reports little value from abstract code review, which she says leads agents to get lost in nitpicks and YAGNI concerns.

## Post

maybe a hot take but i now consider adversarial reviews mostly a waste of tokens. far better to use those tokens on empirical combined with formal verification. i have updated pstack to use the interrogate skill less, and eventually i think i may remove it altogether

i have found very little value with code review in the abstract, agents tend to just get lost in the nitpicks and yagnis