Are you good at agentic coding? How do you even evaluate that? How do you get better? Let’s approach this though the Viable System Model (VSM) from cybernetics. Previously I showed how the VSM can be used to build agents.

Stafford Beer proposed the VSM in 1971 as a way to view (people) organizations through the lens of cybernetics. One insight is that viable systems are hierarchical and composable. You are a viable system, so is your team, as well as your company, etc.

When you use a coding agent, the combination of you and your agent form a viable system. If you want to leverage AI more, that means handing over more control to the coding agent without destabilizing the team.

The VSM does this for you. It gives you a guide for knowing what systems to build and interventions to put in place in order to...