Accept All, Understand None

Pressing enter to accept code suggestions takes less effort than scrolling past them. One keystroke makes the code yours. Reading and understanding that code has not gotten any faster.

A gap exists between how fast you accept code and how fast you understand it. This gap is where mistakes happen.

Technical debt used to have clear causes. You had tight deadlines or you cut corners. You could point to the reason. Now you build debt on a calm Tuesday. You accept six suggestions in a row because they look fine. No one rushed you, but the code remains unexamined.

Brian Kernighan said in 1974 that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program. He was talking about code humans write. At least humans understand their own work.

Today, a suggestion can pass the linter and even pass tests. It can still rely on a wrong assumption. This happens because people read the suggestion as output rather than code. Output that looks good gets approved.

If a model writes both the code and the tests, you are grading homework with the student's own answers. This does not tell you if the logic is sound. It does not tell you if edge cases are covered. It is easy to forget this when the code appears in your own editor and your own style.

This creates real problems:

  • You debug code you never read. When something breaks weeks later, you start from zero.
  • Edge cases fail. A suggestion handles the happy path well. It includes a null check. But it misses the specific logic your business needs.
  • You cannot defend your own pull requests. If a reviewer asks why you chose a method, you have no answer. You did not make the decision. You just did not reject it.

These tools are useful. They help you explore codebases or plan new features. The problem is your posture. You must treat every suggestion as something to read and decide on, not just something to glance at.

For boilerplate or quick scripts, speed is fine. For business logic or security, your approach must change. Read the code like you will own it. Because you will.

Do these things instead:

  • Discuss your solution with the model before asking for code.
  • Review the diff as if you wrote it yourself.
  • Ask the tool to explain its reasoning before you accept the code.
  • Treat suggestions like a junior developer's work. It is useful but not ground truth.
  • Slow down on lines that surprise you. Surprise is a signal.

The keystroke became cheaper. Your responsibility did not. Speed without understanding is just fast debt.

Source: https://dev.to/cloudx/accept-all-understand-none-4dob

Optional learning community: https://t.me/GyaanSetuAi