Understanding is the new bottleneck — Geoffrey Litt, Notion
Jul 10, 2026 · 19:33
Geoffrey Litt from Notion argues that understanding code written by AI agents is crucial for creative participation, not just correctness checking. He presents three techniques: explanations via his 'explain diff' skill, which generates HTML or Notion documents with background, intuition, interactive figures, and literate code diffs, capped by a five-question quiz to ensure understanding before sharing code; micro-worlds, like a step-by-step debugger for a Prolog interpreter or a 'video game' that walks through migrating a website; and shared spaces in Notion where humans and agents can collaborate in multiplayer chat threads and comment on documents. Litt emphasizes that agents can build ephemeral UIs and simulations to help humans understand better, leveraging education principles to stay deeply in the loop.
