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Programming Digest

The "deletion test" is a thought experiment: imagine deleting your entire codebase and regenerating it from scratch. If that's terrifying, it reveals that critical knowledge lives only in the code itself, not in specifications, tests, or contracts. As code generation becomes cheaper through AI, the bottleneck shifts from production to validation. Systems should be built around durable oracles (property-based tests, invariants, contracts) that can mechanically verify correctness without referencing old implementations. When you have strong evaluation mechanisms, code becomes disposable and regeneration becomes safe.

The Phoenix Architecture

Where should the source of truth reside, if not in the source code?
From my experience, it would be a nightmare to create the codebase from old jira tickets and figma designs. There are so many undocumented decisions that only are documented in the source code.

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<li>Why oh why with the one sentence paragraphs. Is that an LLM thing?</li>
<li>Read Spolsky’s <a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">classic post</a>. Also google Hyrum’s Law. That is to say, there is a lot more nuance to recreating a piece of software than the post makes it seem. As soon as you interact with external “things” (humans or systems), uncertainty starts to increase a lot. I think the post has a point when the system in question is relatively small and you have control over your clients. But then it is already possible to create this context from code with the help of LLMs.</li>
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