Comment by hamstergene
1 month ago
I feel like many people in the comments aren't aware that Karpathy is an ML scientist for whom programming is a complementary skill, not a profession. The only reason he came up with "vibe coding" is because maximum complexity of his hobby projects made it seem believable. Maybe take his opinions about fate of programming with a grain of salt.
He is brilliant no doubt, but not in that field.
He's a pretty decent programmer.
It's interesting that some months ago when his nanochat project came out the HN Anti-AI crowd celebrated him saying "I tried to use claude/codex agents a few times but they just didn't work well enough at all and net unhelpful, possibly the repo is too far off the data distribution"
But now it is working for him he's suddenly not an expert...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45573521
What you’re calling the “crowd” was not the same people. Every time someone makes a claim like yours, I go and check and don’t see the same usernames in the conversation. “Different people have different opinions and different ways to express them” isn’t really an insight; it tells us nothing nor does it make anyone worthy of criticism.
You can’t, in an honest argument, lump different strangers into a group you invented to accuse them of duplicity or hypocrisy.
Having created 100 of nano-sized projects does not add up to having developed and maintained one large code base.
Coding agents are eating up programming from the lowest end, starting from pressing button on the keyboard to type the code in: completion was literally their first application. I don't think it will go all the way to the top, though, the essential part of the profession will remain until true AGI.
Metaphorically, think how integrated chips didn't replace electrical engineering, just changed which production tools and components engineers deal with and how.
Obviously we all are adapting to changes, but if he or someone are panicking about being behind, that can only be because they've never been in too deep.
> But now it is working for him he's suddenly not an expert...
Or maybe he didn't lie then but is lying now?
Calling him a liar seems fairly unnecessary? For one thing people's minds can change, or that can be talking in different contexts. Or - as in this case - new technology could have been deployed that changed the game.
Maybe that's true, but I will say that one of the reasons I recommend his Python ML videos to people is not just the ML content but also his Python is good and idiomatic. So I would not agree; I think his programming is a well practiced skill.
FWIW though I think his predicted worldview will render it very difficult to acquire this skill, as people grow reliant on gen AI for programming rudiments.
As far as "programming skill" goes, writing "good and idiomatic" Python is pretty bottom of the barrel. I don't think the GP is all that off, most people who are famous for some programming-adjacent skill (or even programming) aren't good at programming.
>As far as "programming skill" goes, writing "good and idiomatic" Python is pretty bottom of the barrel.
Complete bullshit. Beginning programmers writing good and idiomatic Python isn't "bottom of the barrel", or did you think I was recommending his videos to 20 year seasoned pros to improve their coding?
Some people on this site need to check their arrogance and humble themselves a bit before opening their mouths.
Exactly, I would put more weight on this if it were coming from someone who actually works as a regular programmer in the industry
This is such a great way to frame all his comments.