The Code Works. You Just Can't Read It. And That's the Real Problem.

There's a new phrase making the rounds on engineering teams in 2026: "The code works. We just can't...

venerdì 12 giugno 2026 New tab

711 words~3 min read

There's a new phrase making the rounds on engineering teams in 2026: "The code works. We just can't read it."

It used to be that bad code was code that didn't work. Now we have a different problem entirely: code that works perfectly, passes all tests, handles edge cases — and is completely opaque to the humans who maintain it.

Welcome to the readability crisis.

How We Got Here

The story is simple. AI coding tools got good — really good. Developers started shipping faster than ever. Pull requests got merged, features got deployed, quarterly targets got hit.

The Code Works. You Just Can't Read It. And That's the Real Problem.

The Code Works. You Just Can't Read It. And That's the Real Problem.

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