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Comment by mghackerlady

1 day ago

Vibe Coding is like porn for programmers. It probably isn't good for you, and you'd probably be better off actually doing the thing yourself, but it feels good and satisfies our desires for instant gratification

Well, take for example, I have ideas I've had for years but no time for because by now the requirements are insane. I want to build a backend that could survive nuclear fallout type stuff. I braindump to Claude, watch it churn out my vision for the last 12 years, its insane.

There's other things too though: my ADD and my impostor syndrome don't matter to Claude, Claude just takes it all in, so as I keep brain dumping, it keeps chugging along. I don't have to worry a bout "can I really do this?" it just does it and I can focus on "what can I do to make it better" essentially.

For me it's beyond "porn coding" its basically fulfilling my vision that's been locked away for years but I've had no time to sit down and do it fully. I can tell Claude to do something, my kid comes up and asks me to go draw with them and I can actually just walk away and look at the output and refine.

  • I never said it doesn't have use cases (much like porn a lot of the arguments against are just fear mongering) just that it isn't as good as the real thing. I myself like yapping to an LLM about ideas to see how feasible they actually are before taking a crack at it

Bitching about vibe coding is like watching porn. It makes you feel a bit better in the moment, but it doesn't do anything to address whatever problems in your life have lead you seek comfort in bitching about a thing other people are doing.

Yes yes, ironic comment, since I'm bitching about you bitching. Really though, not everybody is looking to spend hours of their life fine tuning their personal coding abilities. Coding is a means to an end, not the end itself, it's a way to solve problems and if vibe coding can get you the solution the fastest then it's foolish to not use it. Doing the job slower with more effort, because in the future you think that effort is somehow going to pay off by boosting your skills, when in the future LLMs will be even more capable vibe coders anyway is very misguided. If coding is the true objective and you aren't doing it to get something else done, then more power to you, but most people code to solve problems, not for the sake of coding.

  • Comparing bitching about vibe coding to porn is like watching porn. You come away feeling better, but you didn't engage meaningfully with anyone else.

    Who's next?