How to Read Code
A practical course on five modes of reading code — previewing, skimming, scanning, detailed reading, and critical reading — so you can navigate any codebase with confidence.
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Everything is code
An introduction to the idea that code is just text that can be read like any other document.
Watch free preview Humans in the loop
Who is this for
You have everything you need
The five modes of reading
What is cognitive load?
Bounded context simplified
Abstraction vs Concretion
Why layering matters
Understanding scope
Jobs To be Done
Schema formation
Ergonomics
GitHub and OPP
Package Managers
Virtual Environments
What the heck is an IDE?
Intro to Previewing
Conventions and cognitive load
Case Study: Joplin
Previewing with Copilot
Mental Model: What are the bounded contexts?
Mental Model: What are the architectural layers?
Mental Model: What jobs does the software do?
Previewing with Visual Code
Intro to Skimming
Outline view
Type hierarchy
Call hierarchy
Minimaps
Folding
Intro to Scanning
Fuzzy find
Symbol search
Find references
Find concrete classes
Find concrete methods
Bookmarks
Intro to Detailed Reading
Zen mode
Syntax highlighting
Parameter hints
Error warnings
Programmer Comments
Copilot "Explain this"
Intro to Critical Reading
Human Review
Pull Requests
Comparing Things
Pull Request Review Exercise
Git logs
Programmer Intent
Tests
Debugging