# Coding by Magic

DevFeed: [Coding by Magic](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/coding-by-magic-38391.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.danlew.net/2025/05/13/coding-by-magic/>)

Author: Dan Lew

Published: 2025-05-13T14:00:05Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Dan Lew Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/dan-lew-blog.md>)

Topics: [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/coding.md>), [Refactoring](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/refactoring.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>)

Tags: [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [code-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code-design.md>), [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding.md>), [complex](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/complex.md>), [ide](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ide.md>), [refactoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/refactoring.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes "coding by magic" as obscured connections caused by techniques such as reflection, convention-based coupling, and mutable global state. These patterns make codebases harder to understand, debug, and refactor, so the author generally recommends explicit connections except where dynamic invocation is necessary, such as plugin systems.

## Source excerpt

Most of my programming ventures begin with a single line of code I'm curious about. Who is calling the code, and how does this code fit into the larger jigsaw puzzle? As a result, "find usages", "go to declaration", and "go to implementations&