Hello programmers! I’ve been making a living for a couple of decades figuring out stuff for people and coding whatever will make them happy. It’s fun. I’ve grown to prefer the people to the coding but I still get a kick out of the whole thing.
The problem is: at the job we’re being asked to pivot to vibe coding. At this point the order is to use it for all code, read the slop carefully, argue with the machine for way too long and only then open that PR. Massive productivity gains are expected. I’m appalled from an ethical, philosophical and professional standpoint. We’re a non-profit ngo ffs. My colleagues are fine with it. If I get even slightly critical the group goes awkwardly silent and I get comments on how all the programmers they know from other places don’t code anymore.
If this is how it goes from now on, I’m out. Is it really though? Are all businesses switching to vibe coding? Have some of you started switching career? I think I want to go to meatspace. Hand-made coding could make a cute hobby.
But being able to ship small, mildly broken, internal tools for my non-technical coworkers quickly is actually amazing.
Nobody cares if the internal tool code is nice, but when it shaves 50% of the work off of sales the sales team gets excited. So if I vibe up a shitty UI it’s still a net gain.
I’ve probably automated away like 60% of the ad hoc work I used to get into internal tools, and that has helped a ton with workload and budget.
Careful. You know how it goes with temporary workarounds? Suddenly, you find yourself maintaining slightly broken load-bearing slop.
That’s a fair concern, usually I only vibe the UI.
I’m not a front end guy, so as long as I know the backends is good I’m fine with it.
Yeah, it’s only the user’s experience fucked over when the UI is sloped together.
Although I agree with you…
That’s how the vast majority of software has been built for the past couple of decades. LLM’s aren’t different in that regard, just faster.
Ok, UI coding is messy either way.
I am a technician in the physics department for a major university. There are quick and dirty hardware hacks that I threw together 2 decades ago that are still in daily use. Quickly made mildly broken tools have a habit of lingering.
That’s exactly how a webpage that displays an excel spreadsheet nicely in different tables, turned into a gigantic monster of a project that nobody fully understand at my workplace.
Well, kinda, because that was BEFORE ai. I can’t even imagine what mockery of God himself they would have done with AI in their hands.