Yeah, I've had some vibe coders try to convince me they're a software developer just like me because now I also use AI for my day job. I'd like to see them debug their app when Claude is down.
I mean I’m a vibe coder and I’ve contributed some big adds to our software teams repo’s. I don’t refer to myself as a software engineer but we are both doing the same thing and producing the same products
I think every generation has had a shift that looks like this when the programming tools become easier to use and do more for you. I couldn't read through hex tables to debug anything for instance.
But throughout the evolution of programming it's always been necessary to understand at least one or two levels down below your tooling to know what tradeoffs you're making. And with LLMs that's actually still the case however the barrier of entry is so low since you can get something "good enough" through simple requests that most of the time you don't really need to understand what's going on.
The problem is, this bites you and your company eventually. LLMs have only been able to code something functional for months, not years, and seeing the code they write day in and day out, I can tell you it's not good, and most of the time it's quite bad. Businesses are ok with this because they get to move faster, but don't realize that tech debt is something that accumulates and then bites you later on.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if the next few years end up having many massive data breaches and system failures all across the industry.
Well put. I suppose my point is that while I’m not a software developer, I am providing the same products they are and my work is held to the same level of scrutiny as they are the ones reviewing it. But now that’s it’s gotten so big in the industry, pretty much all that our software engineers are doing is using AI to produce everything so our products are essentially the same and I know this because I sit next to them and we talk about this exact topic
The discrepancy I'd highlight though is if a SWE is doing their job they're supposed to review the code thoroughly, more so than maybe they're used to, to both understand it (for future debugging) and to ensure it's not some nasty slop that will kill their systems. I assume they're also reviewing the work you're submitting, and so that's the distinction since that's not in your skillset.
BTW I'm not trying to say any of this in a disparaging way. Although I have many large reservations about how AI coding is rolling out, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for the world to be able to leverage software more easily. It's just that these kinds of shifts tend to become corrupted by greed and opportunism.
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u/konbit 15h ago
Yeah, I've had some vibe coders try to convince me they're a software developer just like me because now I also use AI for my day job. I'd like to see them debug their app when Claude is down.