MIT's Jimmy Koppel: for any complex code, reading beats running it to understand behavior

jimmykoppel · x · 2026-09-07

MIT researcher Jimmy Koppel weighed in on how to figure out what your code does, pushing back on the meme that running or testing code is easier than reading it—"the opposite is true for anything of complexity."

He adds that his own vibe-coded apps are simple web things without privacy or security requirements, implying security-sensitive code demands real reading rather than run-and-see verification.

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