Mastodawn

Sue Smith Sep 13, 2025

This is why I believe we're going to need better tools for reading and exploring codebases

"Writing code is easy. Once you have a solution in mind, and have mastered the syntax of your favorite programming language, writing code is easy. Having an LLM write entire functions for you? Even easier. But the hard part isn’t the writing. It’s the reading. It’s the time it takes to load the mental model of the system into your head. That’s where all the cost really is."

https://idiallo.com/blog/writing-code-is-easy-reading-is-hard

Writing Code Is Easy. Reading It Isn’t.

Writing code is easy. Once you have a solution in mind, and have mastered the syntax of your favorite programming language, writing code is easy. Having an LLM write entire functions for you? Even eas

Ibrahim Diallo Blog

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Sue Smith Sep 13, 2025

It's another way in which LLMs reflect the misprioritisation in dev learning, itself a reflection of the economic dynamics.. we always focused too much on writing code over reading it, and this production line mentality is why anyone would believe a machine that generates code could replace a developer

We're having to fully articulate the skills in building software for the first time

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Jordan B. L. Smith

@sue "We're having to fully articulate the skills in building software for the first time" — very true! I think that believing an AI can do a job correlates strongly with having little or cursory knowledge of what skills the job entails. People who think therapy is just being a conversation partner think AI can be a therapist; people who think being a radiologist is just interpreting x-ray images think an AI can be a radiologist.