No Copying

A new rule I have set for myself: when referencing a code snippet, either found online or generated by AI, if you care about understanding the code do not simply copy and paste it. Type it out yourself verbatim. Even if you do this with a split screen displaying the snippet and your code side-by-side, this reconstruction phase forces you to engage with every single line. This has helped me transition from a surface-level to genuinely deep understanding of the code I write. “What I cannot create, I do not understand.”