On cognitive debt

kept by eddie feb 16

Nate Meyvis argues that cognitive debt in AI-generated codebases is not inherently worse than in traditional codebases, and AI can help mitigate it.

AddyOsmani.com - Comprehension Debt — the hidden cost of AI generated code.
Excessive reliance on AI coding tools creates comprehension debt—a growing gap between code volume and human understanding—that erodes system knowledge and eventually must be paid with interest.
also on Margaret-Anne Storey, #cognitive-debt, Simon Willison, #ai-coding, #software-engineering, #developer-tools
the hold that could not release itself
Conflating historical facts, contracts, time, and policy in a 'held' flag blocked migrations; the fix separates values from time to avoid stale holds.
also on John Ousterhout, #software-engineering, #developer-tools
The case for worrying about AI-specific cognitive debt
Agentic coding's cognitive debt may be worse than traditional coding if working at competence edges, weak mitigation adoption, and macro-level incoherence persist.
also on #cognitive-debt, #ai-coding, #software-engineering, #developer-tools
Fragments: April 29
The post collects expert perspectives on AI-assisted development, emphasizing verification over generation, harness engineering, function structure, and the cultural divide between software thinking and human experience.
also on Simon Willison, #ai-coding, #software-engineering, #developer-tools
AI should help us produce better code - Agentic Engineering Patterns - Simon Willison's Weblog
Coding agents can improve code quality by handling refactoring, enabling exploratory prototyping, and compounding small quality improvements over time.
also on Simon Willison, #ai-coding, #software-engineering, #developer-tools