Michael Feathers

But it's like the most relevant thinking that like this is the most practically applicable book I think most software leaders should read if you're trying to figure out how do I take this code base that's been around before AI and make AI work with it.

It's called Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers.

And the first thing he does, which I love in this book, is he defines legacy code as code without text, right? He's like, we can all talk forever about what good code and bad code look like.

And so you could say it's legacy because it's bad, but that's somewhat a matter of taste.

But.

I think that the common thread of a lot of the sort of thought leaders that I follow, and a lot of them are like people like old, bold hat folks like Brian Merrick and like Michael Feathers, you know, agile manifesto guys like they they're as excited as I am.

And I think that might be a disconnect with the average person, because like what we loved was building and then talking about it.

And I think to your point, a lot of people like coding and and they like to go deeper down the stack, if anything.

And honestly, that fear is rational.

And Michael Feathers sharpened it even more.

Legacy code is code without tests.

No safety net.