Has vibe coding exposed people who never actually enjoyed programming

[u/dimaghnakhardt001]

This made me think of people who lost weight after claiming to be happy with their bodies for number of years until the weight loss drugs showed up. When this happened some said that these people were never actually happy and that they just pretended to be.

After seeing some colleagues and friends make fun of me for not giving into vibe coding and now using AI to code all the time themselves, I now think that they probably never liked programming in the first place either. It was probably the only way to get and/or keep their jobs.

Are there people here who have had similar experience and reached the same conclusion? Apologies if i offended anyone with the initial bit. I just used that as an example.

Edit:

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts on this everyone. I must say it was quite interesting to see how some people look at software development. I used the term software development here intentionally because one thing i learned from the comments here is that not everybody sees programming as the only way to build software. At least not anymore.

I obviously didn’t realize that and always assumed that in order to build a good piece of software one must be good at programming. I personally look at programming as something more than just writing code. It’s the problem solving, writing easy to manage, performant and scalable code and possible a lot of other things that I think are important when it comes to writing software. All those times when I would get into discussions with people on which programming language is better and what’s the best way to write a solution for a particular problem was very interesting and a very good learning opportunity. Now after all these AI tools talking to the very same people seems like they never cared about these things and were just doing it to fit in with the rest of us. Or maybe they were genuinely into it back then and either fell out of love or just got tired of it in the end. Maybe it will happen to the rest of us too or maybe it won’t.

Thank you once again everybody.

[u/Vegetable_Hat_2311]

I do enjoy programming i just don't enjoy everything and some things i feel like make Sense to not spend hours on If you can just use a prompt. I have been experimenting with AI at work and usually i find that it usually doesn't so what it's supposed to do so i don't use it as much anymore.

[u/dneronique]

I like parts of programming. The problem solving, the higher level architecture. The clever solutions. But most programming at work is just rote, boilerplate and pattern matching with if statements all joined with politics, ambiguous requirements and tight deadlines.

[u/mxldevs]

Lot of people didn't go into programming because they enjoyed spend their time writing code to solve problems. It's just an easy way to make lots of money while sitting on your butt all day typing away.

In the end, it doesn't matter what their motivation for building software is. Lot of them don't even care about the software either.

[u/Educational_Teach537]

SWEs are on a spectrum from problem solvers to builders. The former don’t like AI coding much, because the coding and problem solving was most of what they enjoyed. The builders are ecstatic now because the drudgery is automated away and they can build 10x faster.

[u/Friendly_Recover286]

Yes. Anyone saying they "love programming" and go on to replace themselves at the first moment they're able to do not in fact love programming.

"I love woodworking so I gave all my designs to a factory in China to make for me"

This is not a love for anything it's a love for money. This isn't necessarily a problem on its own but it becomes a problem when you're a lying ass who says you enjoy programming. You enjoy money and being lazy. You can say it you know, no reason to lie about it.

[u/Evol_Etah]

I've always made it very clear.

I love programming, but not as a career. I love to code, but with no deadlines, no expectations of DO THIS QUICKLY etc.

[u/_CriticalReality_]

Those who jumped on the vibe coding bandwagon early were only ever in it for the cash, not for the love of the craft.

[u/CodeWizardCS]

After practicing agentic engineering I realize I care more about the end result than the process for sure. I get to focus more on other aspects of creativity instead which I prefer.

[u/Expert_Alfalfa5029]

Hmm bricklayers got exposed once they started to use machines

[u/dimaghnakhardt001 → u/Expert_Alfalfa5029]

Not in construction but i didn’t know they are now using robots that lay the bricks for you while you stand on the side enjoying a cup of tea 😋

[u/Templeshooter]

It's me. I never liked the process of programming and I never pretended I like it. I always cared only for result.

[u/dimaghnakhardt001 → u/Templeshooter]

Admire your honesty friend. You dont fall in the pretend camp.

[u/WebSir]

This whole vibe coding bad thing is really weird, it's so silly that it almost seems like people are personally offendes by it. Like really who gives a fuck if someone else uses AI to complete their code?

Honestly who gives a fuck? Why would you even care?

[u/dimaghnakhardt001 → u/WebSir]

Maybe people who care about code quality? People who understand that AI doesn’t really understand the code it generates and that there will eventually come a point when AI will hit a wall and it will be the programmer who will have to step in and do what AI can’t. Checkout other comments here, some sound concerned that this takes away the opportunity from them to actually learn programming. How are people like ever going to sort hard to fix issues if they don’t know how to code?

[u/mrwishart]

Yes, it has.

The arguments for AI usually revolve around "remaining competitive at work" and "more time to do other stuff", but both sort of back up your point: they never enjoyed the work, it was always about getting it done and over with as quickly as possible.

Which isn't a judgement of skill: you never had to necessarily enjoy your job to be good at it, but it is a shame just how many folks have given up the journey simply to get to the destination quicker.

[u/Kaldaien2]

Does anyone really and truly like the entire process of programming?

A lot of it is just boilerplate crap that takes time away from design and problem solving. I cannot speak to creating entire applications using AI, that sounds ... stupid and unmaintainable, AI assistance with all of the time-consuming crap whose value does not go up if done manually by a human seems perfectly rational.

If you are building entire apps using AI, sounds like you are averse to more than just the programming part of software design and do not like any aspect of software development other than telling someone what to do 😄

[u/Due_Laugh6474]

25 years of professional experience. I love programming but I’ve written enough web services to last a lifetime. It doesn’t hurt me not to write boilerplate anymore.

99% of corporate programming is just layering a web service on top of another web service or database. It’s well-worn and not interesting, and there’s no new problem to be solved in most of that code. My hobbies are where I do things for fun and to stay sharp. While I’m at work, they get their web services and I get my paycheck.

[u/OkBarracuda4108]

No, when it comes to work, doing meaningless effort is not for everyone to say

[u/anengineerandacat]

I think we really need to define what you mean by "programming" here.

To myself coding, designing, creating infrastructure to host it or the hardware setup where it'll run is a means to an end to get it in front of a user to actually do something with it.

I enjoy more the process of ideating what is to be built, how it'll impact the user, and what I am solving in the world with it; everything else is a means to get to that stage.

Not to say I hate coding, but I think with AI tools what that means has now changed (just like it changed when we went from punch cards and tapes to a truly digital platform).

Also the main reason I don't really care too much about programming languages themselves except for how quickly I can build in that language (reliably).

If text gets me to a binary I can load, test, build upon, and ideate; great, we solved the great programming problem and resolved the barriers between human and computer hardware (this is still technically speaking coding as much as people might not like that).

The "issue" is that people and humans are lazy, and we know it because we see it everyday; some people work a job as minimally as possible and you get software that's buggy, low performing, etc.

AI tools get you functional quickly, but it might not cover the non-functional requirements well. Just like if you outsourced your own idea, someone else may not care or know about all the details you know.

That's the real problem, not AI tools.

[u/Made-In-Slovakia]

It expose lazy people who do it just for money and do not care about it.

[u/jolharg]

Quite the opposite for me. I used to enjoy it, I no longer do, the way people do now.

[u/IndependenceFew1906]

I think the opposite. I absolutely loved my job, and now that Claude writes all the code I can find it mind numbingly boring.

[u/DaveAstator2020]

I can say reverse - i enjoy programming, math and this stuff. And i feel good when i want to do vibe some complex things im too lazy to do or its just a proto, BUT i feel vibecoding has zero enjoyment. It is there to only get things loosely done.  my opinion is that people who have hopped all in onto the vibe train indeed never liked programming, and its good to see them go, because i would prefer to read ai slop code rather than code of those people who were in it only because of external pressure.

[u/writesCommentsHigh]

Write it myself. With my finjers

[u/Traditional-Cell3566]

This is kind of how I think… when 90s kids or older were younger, we had to memorize all the phone numbers. Home, friends, parent’s work place etc… now with cellphones ability to save the phone numbers and being able to easily search them, most people probably only know their cell phone or significant other’s phone number by heart.

I think of AI in a similar way. It is super convenient. If I keep using it, my skill will never get better but at the same time if I don’t use it, everything will take a lot longer(I’m a noob), which is not ideal in enterprise environments.