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Why is reading code harder than writing it?
by AlexCoventry 1y ago
Why is reading code harder than writing it?
- blackoil 1y agoI think it has to do with mental model. If you already know what to write and it is reasonably complex you'll have a mental model ready and can quickly write it down (now even faster as LLMs autocomplete 3-4 lines at a time). While reading someone else code you'll have to constantly map the code in your mind with code written and have to then compare quality, security and other issues.
- theshrike79 1y agoI'd say just reading your own code from a few years back will be as hard as reading someone else's.
- stavros 1y agoYeah, it's exactly this. Having to create a mental model from the code is much harder than having one and just writing it out.
- AlexCoventry 1y agoI just tend to find LLM code output extremely to read, I guess. It tends to be verbose and do a lot of unnecessary stuff, but I can always get the point easily and edit accordingly.