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@ Egge
2025-05-23 06:48:00
By now, you probably know I’m not a big fan of "vibe coding." But before I dive into why, let me clarify: I’m not talking about using AI as a helpful tool to assist with coding. I’m referring to the concept originally described by Andrej, fully giving in to the "vibe," ignoring implementation details, and letting AI take the wheel.
In my view, that approach is mostly useless, if not outright harmful, in many situations. I think most would agree: you can’t build critical systems this way. And you certainly can’t unleash vibe coding on legacy codebases without risking regressions all over the place. Sure, it might work fine for weekend projects (which, to be fair, is exactly the context Andrej was referring to). But those weekend projects are where developers learn the craft. When you "vibe" your way to the finish line, you miss out on a huge part of the learning experience. Software design and implementation is hard and it takes time and repetition to learn. At the same time actual typing will let you master your environment, making you a more productive engineer.
When I bring this up, vibe coders often respond with something like, “Well, mastering AI tools is just as important. If you don’t learn to use them, you’ll fall behind.” Really? Come on. “Mastering” vibe coding tools might take an experienced engineer a day or two. Mastering software engineering (if that’s even possible) takes a lifetime. At the same time vibe bros will constantly tell you that AI is gonna be a completely different thing in 12 months from now, so everyone has to relearn all the tricks anyway.
When I hear that university students are solving their data structures and algorithms homework by just pasting it into ChatGPT, while companies like Amazon are still asking candidates to implement a running median using heaps, it feels like there’s a growing disconnect. And honestly, there’s a bit of delusion on both sides.
I think what I am trying to get at is: Don't let the vibe take away your chance to grow and learn. It is an incredible tool, when used correctly though.