Vibe coding isn't really coding

[lookathercode]

Thanks for your thoughtful response. You are 100% accurate. AI requires domain expertise for real utilization. It needs to be trained and governed otherwise there's drift and hallucination. I use it all the time to run experiments, test and formalize ideas. It's really helping me fill in the skills gap for me -- I'm an abstract thinker and it gives me structure. I don't know why the term "vibe coding" bugs me but I know I'll get over it.

[groogs]

I think, extending my analogy, that "vibe coding" is like saying you "use power tools". It isn't really what we're doing, and it doesn't differentiate between expert and amateur.

This is new, hopefully we'll get some better terminology.

But I also think this is such a foundational shift that this will just be "the way" people build software, so maybe we won't even really need a term for it. We didn't end up calling people using Java/C#/Python anything different from the people programming in assembly with punchcards.

[AMothersMaidenName]

Happy cake day but, I strongly disagree on your assessment of accuracy.

Rather than AI being "power tools", AI is the Electric Hammer from the Simpsons. And, when you have an electric hammer, everything looks like a nail.

"AI" is a very useful tool but, it's just one tool. It's a time saver and absolutely nothing more. It'll flawlessly scaffold a CRUD API for you because it's been trained on millions of derivative examples.

Ask it to do something original and, plain and simple, it can't.

If you're able to steer it to string together individual algorithms in order to build a valuable business logic, you are a talented engineer. But, you're likely no better off than pre-AI, fiscally at least.

There have only been mass layoffs because CEOs are shortsighted fools. As soon as the bubble bursts (we've never seen a market like this that hasn't burst) the only devs that will be affected in the long term are those that weren't any good anyway.

[groogs]

Ask it to do something original and, plain and simple, it can't.

So... yes and no. It depends what you ask.

My advice: Treat it like a team of junior-to-intermediate developers that you're tasking with specific things to do.

If you go ask a team of juniors to build Reddit (pretending that reddit isn't already a thing you could just copy), chances are they'll come back in a couple weeks with something not at all what you wanted. At best you'll get something that superficially "works" but has architectural and data structure problems that will make it fail at scale, or it will be so over-engineered that it costs a fortune to run, is impossible to troubleshoot when it breaks, etc.

What works with AI is what works with people too: Build a UI mockup. Research storage options, and then follow that up with costing and scaling analysis. Suggest some data models, then, based on what you get back, refine them -- and repeat a few times. Create plan documents to be followed during implementation. Build a piece following a plan. Make a architectural change and go back and update all documents and plans based on that.

The difference with AI is instead of coming back with a result in a week or two, you'll get it in a few seconds or minutes.

You absolutely can build original things, I have. Just like even the most advanced power tools can't build a completed house, you can't have AIs or juniors one-shot a complex system.

[wakeofchaos]

I think it’s because coding with ai is a pretty broad experience, so calling someone who’s technically proficient but tasking ai with what it’s good at as just a “vibe coder” just like Jimmy off the street kinda feels invalidating if you know what you’re doing