We shipped faster. The debt did too.

You open a file you have not touched in months and your first instinct is to read it like it belongs to someone else.

Not because it is broken. Not because the tests are failing. Just because you do not immediately know where its edges are.

You gotta believe me when I say I had that feeling recently, on a module I last touched roughly six months ago. The code ran. The logic held. But I had to re-read it like the way you re-read code you did not write: slowly, looking for the load-bearing pieces, rebuilding a picture of why it works before I could safely change it.

I had written most of it. "With help."

The AI agent had generated large sections. I had reviewed, adjusted, and approved the diffs. At the time, the pace felt like a genuine unlock. Six months later, the code felt like something from totally different era.