Interesting article. I needed to ignore my first (knee-jerk) reaction about vibe coding. But I think he is up to something. Especially as I observed used coding with AI quite a lot.

I recall the moment I quit pursuing software engineering. It was when I learned the concept of unit testing. I refused to write code for my code just to get my code to work. I wanted to ship software to bring an idea to life, and that's what a lot of people want.

I wonder sometimes about this filter. When I remember back to when I learned coding (without internet in the beginning) and not understanding English. You need to reach this bottleneck over and over again and somehow make it over it.

The majority of people quit making software when they can’t overcome bottlenecks. Vibe coding gives people more shots on goals to pursue their ideas, and that’s worth cultivating.

My engineer heart does not like this statement. But he is right the end result is what counts. Having code to check your own code does not help. I see a place for this in systems which are so big that you can’t keep it in mind to reason about. But then the question is also what can you do to make the application simpler to reason about.

The craft of software is in a multi-generational shift right now. As we look back, we’ll laugh at the way we used to code. Why are we still talking to super-powerful laptops the same way as communicating to a giant mainframe computer and acting like we’re timesharing computing?

⤑ Too legit to git.

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