This is a challenge which I don't think AI tools like Cursor have cracked yet. They're great for laying "fresh pavement" but it's akin to being a project manager contracting the work out.
Even if I use Cursor (or some other equivalent) and review the code I find my mental model of the system is much more lacking. It actually had a net negative on my productivity as it gave me anxiety at going back to the codebase.
If an AI tool could help a user interactively learn the mental model I think that would be a great step in the right direction.
catigula · 32m ago
An AI tool can both navigate a legacy codebase and help explain it to you successfully currently, right now, if you're doing it correctly.
I've contracted some of this understanding of pieces/intellectual work out to Claude code many, many times successfully.
vivzkestrel · 45m ago
I am really bad at reading code to be honest (especially other people's code). Any tips on how I can go about becoming good at this like starting from baby steps?
Night_Thastus · 5m ago
Practice, context and domain-specific knowledge.
#1 is easy, #2 requires some investigation, #3 requires studying.
If you're looking at say, banking code - but you know nothing about finance - you may struggle to understand what it's doing. You may want to gain some domain expertise. Being an SME makes reading the related code a heck of a lot easier.
Context comes down to learning the code base. What code calls the part you're looking at? What user actions trigger it? Look at the comments and commit messages - what was the intention? This just takes time and a lot of trawling around, looking for patterns and common elements. User manuals and documentation can also help. This part can't be rushed - it just comes to passing over it again and again and again. If you have access to people very familiar with the code - ask them! They may be able to kick start your intro.
#1 will come naturally with time.
hashbig · 2m ago
Like everything else, practice. I like to clone repositories of open source tools I use and try to understand how a particular feature is built end to end. I find that reading code aimlessly is not that helpful. Try to read it with a goal in mind. When starting out, pick a tool/application that is very simple and lean on LLMs to explain only the bits you don't understand.
Even if I use Cursor (or some other equivalent) and review the code I find my mental model of the system is much more lacking. It actually had a net negative on my productivity as it gave me anxiety at going back to the codebase.
If an AI tool could help a user interactively learn the mental model I think that would be a great step in the right direction.
I've contracted some of this understanding of pieces/intellectual work out to Claude code many, many times successfully.
#1 is easy, #2 requires some investigation, #3 requires studying.
If you're looking at say, banking code - but you know nothing about finance - you may struggle to understand what it's doing. You may want to gain some domain expertise. Being an SME makes reading the related code a heck of a lot easier.
Context comes down to learning the code base. What code calls the part you're looking at? What user actions trigger it? Look at the comments and commit messages - what was the intention? This just takes time and a lot of trawling around, looking for patterns and common elements. User manuals and documentation can also help. This part can't be rushed - it just comes to passing over it again and again and again. If you have access to people very familiar with the code - ask them! They may be able to kick start your intro.
#1 will come naturally with time.