[margaretstorey]

Nice to read the discussion here.

A few mentioned cognitive debt is not new, I agree. Large systems have always been beyond the reach of individual understanding (Naur and others have written about this for decades).

What I'm curious to investigate is whether AI is amplifying and changing the nature of cognitive debt as code and system features are generated faster than teams can build shared understanding.

Some of the discussion around specs, contracts and accountability touch on how we can manage intent, especially as systems evolve.

I've been working on a broader frame around technical, cognitive, and intent debt if folks are interested: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22106