The only reason it gets stale is if you let it. I hear the "out of sync" argument a lot, but that problem is just as common with descriptive names! Yet I don't see any articles decrying descriptive naming as a result: you update the name.
Keep your comments in sync as a mandatory part of refactoring. Get into the habit of distrusting any code with a mismatching intent comment; it usually means both code and comment are wrong.
The only reason it gets stale is if you let it. I hear the "out of sync" argument a lot, but that problem is just as common with descriptive names! Yet I don't see any articles decrying descriptive naming as a result: you update the name.
Keep your comments in sync as a mandatory part of refactoring. Get into the habit of distrusting any code with a mismatching intent comment; it usually means both code and comment are wrong.
If your comments usually get out of sync, then it could be a symptom your code review process needs to be improved.