May 2, 2026 — 13 min — Platform & AI
Comprehension Debt: When Code Ships Without Theory
Why a two-day debug session on a one-month-old AI-generated bug is not a debugging problem but a theory-building problem you skipped, and the operating discipline that makes the missing theory recoverable.
Outcome: Reader has a working definition of comprehension debt distinct from technical debt, three questions to test whether a theory exists for an AI-generated component, a PR comprehension scoring rubric, and a deliberate-practice tactic set that prevents the doom loop.