If You Can’t Explain It, You Don’t Own It

The model handed me a working solution.
It ran. The tests passed.

And I realized I couldn’t explain it.

That scared me more than a bug would have.
Because the day it broke,
I’d be standing in front of code I didn’t understand.

So I made a rule for myself.
Let it write, yes.
But I don’t ship what I can’t explain.

I read it. I trace it. I make it mine.

The model can produce the answer.
It can’t do the understanding for me.

If I can’t explain it,
I don’t really own it —
I’m just borrowing it until it breaks.

– Serguey Asael Shinder

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