Always Be Blaming

Always Be Blaming May 18, 2026 A few tips on 4D-ing your code comprehension skills. I wrote on the importance of reading code before: Look Out For Bugs My default approach to reading is “predictive”: I don’t actually read the code line by line. Rather, I try to understand the problem that it wants to solve, then imagine my own solution, and read the “diff” between what I have in my mind and what I see in the editor. Non-empty “diff” signifies either a bug in my understanding, or an opportunity to improve the code. This is 2D reading, understanding a snapshot of code, frozen in time. This is usually enough to spot “this feels odd” anomalies, worthy of further investigation. Ideal code is memoryless — it precisely solves the problem at hand. Most real code is Markov — the shape of the code at time T depends not only on the problem statement, but also on the shape of the code at time T - 1. The 3D step is to trace the evolution of code over time, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where…