[MrMcCall]

Here's the secret to grokking a software project: a given codebase is not understandable without understanding how and why it was built; i.e. if you didn't build it, you're not going to understand why it is the way it is.

In theory, the codebase should be, as it is, understandable (and it is, with a great deal of rigorous study). In reality, that's simply not the case, not for any non-trivial software system.

[thfuran]

So your secret to understanding code is: Abandon hope all ye who enter here?

[MrMcCall]

Hard work is no secret, it's just avoided by slackers at all costs :-)

What I'm really saying is that our software development software is missing a very important dimension.

[marcosdumay]

Oh, you will understand why things were built. It's inevitable.

And all of that understanding will come from people complaining about you fixing a bug.

[gwervc]

Too bad most projects don't document any of those decisions.

[xnx]

LLMs might be a good argument for documenting more of the "why" in code comments.