"Vibe Coding" vs. Reality

minimaxir · 2025-03-22T20:58:24 1742677104

The reference to Claude Plays Pokemon isn't applicable to the discussion of vibe coding, although the suggestion that AI agents can fix the issues with vibe coding is funny in an ironic way given the disproportionate hype around both.

The issues with Claude Plays Pokemon (an overview here: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/why-anthropics-claude-sti... ) is essentially due to the 200k context window being finite, which is why it has to use an intermediate notepad. In the case of coding assistants like Cursor, the "notepad" is self-documenting with the code itself, sometimes literally with excessive code comments. The functional constraints of code are also more defined both implicitly and optionally explicitly: For Pokemon Red, the 90's game design doesn't often give instructions on where to go for the next objective, which is why the run is effectively over after getting Lt. Surge's badge as the game becomes very nonlinear.

mr_mitm · 2025-03-22T20:52:45 1742676765

> "Vibe Coding" might get you 80% the way to a functioning concept. But to produce something reliable, secure, and worth spending money on, you’ll need experienced humans to do the hard work not possible with today’s models.

This would have been clear from Karpathy's full statement:

> It's not too bad for throwaway weekend projects, but still quite amusing.

18172828286177 · 2025-03-22T20:56:23 1742676983

> ever since I started to share how I built my SaaS using Cursor > random thing are happening, maxed out usage on api keys, people bypassing the subscription, creating random shit on db

This has to be a troll no?

musicale · 2025-03-22T20:53:30 1742676810

    "ever since I started to share how I built my SaaS using Cursor"

    random thing are happening, 
    maxed out usage on api keys, 
    people bypassing the subscription,
    creating random shit on db

    as you know
    I'm not technical so
    this is taking me longer that usual
    to figure out

nextts · 2025-03-22T20:57:08 1742677028

That one is almost a meme on Linked In. For fun I hope it is a long troll (like a long con but for trolling)

And most of linked in (as the algo show me!) is basically this HN post in 100 words or the polar opposite saying how software engineers have had their chips.

Trasmatta · 2025-03-22T20:48:57 1742676537

The more I work with LLMs and try things like "vibe coding" the less worried I am about AI taking my job any time soon.

In the right contexts, I find LLMs can speed up my work a lot. But it's nowhere close to being able to replace what I do.

jgilias · 2025-03-22T20:52:11 1742676731

I feel exactly the same. On the other hand, the “speed up my work a lot” part is important, and shouldn’t be overlooked. Like, if someone reads this article and figures they don’t need to learn to use AI for their coding job, that’s the wrong conclusion to make.

Trasmatta · 2025-03-22T20:54:03 1742676843

Agreed, I feel that a developer who refuses to learn to work with AI tools will inevitably fall behind those that do. But I don't see AI being able to replace a developer who can work WITH AI anytime soon (at least on anything non trivial).

varenc · 2025-03-22T20:54:01 1742676841

Speeding up your work does lead to job loss. If some developers can suddenly be 3x as productive than a company doesn't need as many engineers.

hollerith · 2025-03-22T20:58:04 1742677084

Wait 10 years, though.

bobxmax · 2025-03-22T20:52:00 1742676720

I work at a company relatively well-known in Startup-land and I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI.

Devs are just coping so hard around LLMs its hard to watch. OTOH the few engineers who have embraced it are excelling.

stavros · 2025-03-22T20:54:35 1742676875

I'd like to come back to this in a year to see how maintainable the codebase is.

Trasmatta · 2025-03-22T20:55:19 1742676919

Are you a developer yourself?

Product people love the idea of being able to fire their dev teams, but I'm not sure they understand the implications (some of wich may not become clear for years).

pton_xd · 2025-03-22T20:54:16 1742676856

You likely should have replaced those devs years ago. Kudos to LLMs helping you figure that out though.

jgilias · 2025-03-22T20:53:32 1742676812

After all these years 10x devs have become a reality.

barbazoo · 2025-03-22T20:53:39 1742676819

> I've replaced a product team which had 9 devs 2 years ago with 2 devs with AI.

Totally believable bro

bobxmax · 2025-03-22T20:49:55 1742676595

Vibe Coding is a trigger word for devs who insist it's a pointless exercise because it doesn't do 100% of the job. Devs don't seem to realize that's not the point - the point is you can hire less devs if you're only worried about the remaining 20%.

Also this article is immensely distracting.

cmdli · 2025-03-22T20:54:58 1742676898

Currently, AIs emulate a less skilled, junior developer. They can certainly get you up and running, but adding junior developers doesn’t speed up a lot of projects. What we are seeing is people falling into the “mythical man month” trap, where they believe that adding another coding entity will reduce the amount of work humans do, but that isn’t how most projects come out.

To put it simply, it doesn’t matter if AI does 80% of the work if that last 20% takes 5x longer. As long as you need a human in the loop who understands the code, that human is going to have to spend the normal amount of time understanding the problem.

do_not_redeem · 2025-03-22T20:56:18 1742676978

The problem it's more work to figure out which 20% it did subtly wrong, than it is to just do things right in the first place.

https://twitter.com/leojr94_/status/1901560276488511759

https://twitter.com/leojr94_/status/1902537756674318347

Good thing this guy wasn't in charge of an actual business, because if he was it would have been killed overnight.

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