Comment by vidarh
13 hours ago
> I’m not sure how people get joy out of constantly vibe coding new projects. It feels like binge watching Netflix shows.
I get joy out of it because it solves actual problems I have that I don't have time to solve manually, or don't want to. E.g. I just recently had Codex add a mechanism for two-level virtual desktops because I wanted groups of them. An hour later I had two-level virtual desktops in my wm that worked exactly how I wanted it, with support for it in my desktop switcher. I could write it myself, but why would I? I love writing code for various projects, but sometimes I just want the outcome.
For me that’s a slippery slope. It’s not really clear what parts of my hobby project are the good parts and what parts are unfulfilling. When I start including AI too much I end up feeling that none of it is fulfilling. When I do things manually I feel pride in the details however, even though those same details on another day would make me feel like I’m wasting my precious life.
I spent 2 months having Opus build a demo for a project I dreamt of for 15 years, but somehow now I can’t feel interested in it. I’m trying to avoid this. A good use case for me has been using AI to help me acquire all primary source documentation on a topic and then prepare a curated sequence of study based on a small demo I’d like to build.
Keep in mind I’m talking about how I’m approaching creative programming in my personal free time.
To me it's very easy: If I want to do a change by hand for the joy of doing that, I do. But if I want a piece of functionality now and don't want to set aside time to build it, I let an agent do it.
It boils down to whether I dream about the outcome or how to do it.
E.g. I have no emotional attachment to my window manager - I wrote it (by hand, originally) because I wanted a specific set of functionality, not because I particularly wanted the experience of writing one.
I've recently made lots of changes to it with Opus because I wanted another set of functionality and was elated not to have to spend time doing it manually because what I wanted was the functionality.
I'm now a very happy user of a better window manager than I was before.
Conversely, I have dozens of projects I stay closer to, because I care about the code and don't particularly care if that means I might have to wait for years to get to something usable, if ever.
I think there’s a lot of need for people to help others understand how to healthily engage with this technology. I do struggle with turning it off once I get started on it.
I also believe I see the future coming very fast. I’ve been addicted to watching television for weeks on end or playing games for months on end. I don’t want to fall into something like that again. The vibe coding thing feels exactly like that to me.
This. And the AI detractors in this thread are the same I think, and are virtue signalling.
I’m not virtue signaling? I’ve shared exactly my experience. People experience reality differently and that’s not some affront on you.
Woops i responded to the wrong comment sorry!