> The article sort of goes sideways with this idea but pointing out that AI coding robs you a deep understanding of the code it produces is a valid and important criticism of AI coding.
In any of my teams with moderate to significant code bases, we've always had to lean very hard into code comments and documentation, because a developer will forget in a few months the fine details of what they've previously built. And further, any org with turnover needs to have someone new come in and be able to understand what's there.
I don't think I've met a developer that keeps all of the architecture and design deeply in their mind at all times. We all often enough need to go walk back through and rediscover what we have.
Which is to say... if the LLM generator was instead a colleague or neighboring team, you'd still need to keep up with them. If you can adapt those habits to the generative code then it doesn't seem to be a bit leap.
In any of my teams with moderate to significant code bases, we've always had to lean very hard into code comments and documentation, because a developer will forget in a few months the fine details of what they've previously built. And further, any org with turnover needs to have someone new come in and be able to understand what's there.
I don't think I've met a developer that keeps all of the architecture and design deeply in their mind at all times. We all often enough need to go walk back through and rediscover what we have.
Which is to say... if the LLM generator was instead a colleague or neighboring team, you'd still need to keep up with them. If you can adapt those habits to the generative code then it doesn't seem to be a bit leap.