Your Job Is To Understand Systems
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From Boston, MA
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If you're in the same line of work as I am, then your job isn't to produce code, or to ship products/features/changes/etc. Its to understand the systems you're working within.
Code comprehension is becoming crucial as we adopt agentic engineering practices - and no that doesn't mean you need to read every line of code your agent touches. Instead it's broader than that - you need to understand the system as a whole and be able to zoom in and out on smaller components of the system as needed.
If there's a bug in a small component of the system - you should have the tools necessary to zoom into that component, with the context of the components around that one in order to form a mental model that helps you understand the bug and reason about a proper fix for the bug. Not just any fix for the bug, but a proper fix (note: the scope/definition of proper could change dependning on the macro environment in which you're working. If your team is pressed on time for other deadlines, then a quicker but less accurate fix might be proper.)
You don't need to keep a complete mental model of the whole system, instead you need the capabilities/know how to use tools like agents to understand the system.