How do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM?
Justin Weiss · 2026-07-16 · ai, engineeringHow do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM? If you used an LLM to write code you shipped a month ago, how well do you remember it? Would you realize if the code you committed today would break it?
- ▪Justin Weiss · 2026-07-16 · ai, engineeringHow do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM?
- ▪If you used an LLM to write code you shipped a month ago, how well do you remember it?
- ▪Would you realize if the code you committed today would break it?
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Justin Weiss · 2026-07-16 · ai, engineeringHow do you stay familiar with the code when it's written by an LLM? If you used an LLM to write code you shipped a month ago, how well do you remember it? Would you realize if the code you committed today would break it? If a customer reported a bug, would you quickly think, "Oh, I know what that is" in the same way you used to? As you have LLMs write more code, you'll quickly realize you're less familiar with the code you ship. You have a harder time remembering the decisions you made. You no longer instinctively know where the code lives. If someone asks you a question about it, you have to go back to the LLM instead of answering off the top of your head. Over time, you have to delegate more work and more understanding to the LLM.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Aha!.
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