Why You Should Forget the Tooling and Refactor Code Manually

Manual refactoring improves developer understanding and code quality by encouraging deliberate practice and deep learning. Automated tools can hinder this by reducing the need to read and understand code. The author argues for typing out refactored code rather than using tools or copy-pasting, citing psychological research on dopamine and memory. Risks include slower progress in large codebases, but long-term gains in team knowledge and system design outweigh downsides.