Comment by pmarreck

This is why [former Codeium] Windsurf's name is so genius.

Windsurfing (the real activity) requires multiple understandings:

1) How to sail in the first place

2) How to balance on the windsurfer while the wind is blowing on you

If you can do both of those things, you can go VERY fast and it is VERY fun.

The analogy to the first thing is "understanding software engineering" (to some extent). The analogy to the second thing is "understanding good prompting while the heat of deadlines is on you". Without both, you are just creating slop (falling in the water repeatedly and NOT going faster than either surfing or sailing alone). Junior devs that are leaning too hard on LLM assistance right off the bat are basically falling in the water repeatedly (and worse, without realizing it).

I would at minimum have a policy of "if you do not completely understand the code written by an LLM, you will not commit it." (This would be right after "you will not commit code without it being tested and the tests all passing.")