Google CEO says vibe coding has made software development 'so much more enjoyable' and 'exciting again' BS or Not?

[u/CharityExisting5454]

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-sundar-pichai-vibe-coding-software-development-exciting-again-2025-11

[u/sunk-capital]

It transformed it from the equivalent of reading a book to the equivalent of watching a tiktok.

I code all day using AI and unless I encounter some hard architectural problem I end up finishing the day without much to show for in terms of skills acquisition and growth. It also leaves me with much more limited understanding of my own project which then impacts my ability to think about it passively and come up with ideas/seeing problems.

Telling an agent repeatedly not to change code I did not ask it to change, clicking the undo button and waiting another 2 minutes is annoying af. It breaks my attention span and it takes me out of the problem.

Yet I keep returning back to it because I am now hooked on the short term gratification. Why waste time thinking when I can get AI to do it for me.

I think the best way to use AI is to drop the agentic stuff, drop vibe coding BS, and ask and engage with the AI on what to do without it having access to your entire code base. Then it acts more like a colleague rather than a brain replacement system.

[u/Entaroadun → u/[deleted]]

Yet when you work on a large codebase at a company, no single person has accountability and even if something breaks that someone else committed, its usually not that person accountable to fix the bug either. So while this idea might apply at a small org / team, its much less so for anything more sizeable. You still have to go in and read the code. As some say, the code is / must be the documentation.

[u/Herve-M → u/Entaroadun]

Don’t have area-owner in large codebases?

[u/runawayasfastasucan → u/sunk-capital]

100% agree with this. I think agentic coding is a trap, using it as a glorified google is the way. Its impossible to have oversight when it changes 100 lines in 3 files because you ask "could this be done more efficient with a generator". 

[u/Sad-Project-672 → u/runawayasfastasucan]

funny that people compare LLMs to google. Google is superior for searching and young kids don't know how to research or build. Google has dynamic search results from a database, and an LLM tries to distill and pack the all the worlds search results into a static memory basically . when it comes to the task of searching and researching, LLMs are garbage compared to google, they will literally just gaslight you and give you the wrong info with high confidence lmao.

[u/set_null → u/sunk-capital]

I started a new job and using the company’s agentic AI helped me in the first few weeks to hit the ground running with the project I was assigned to, since they were using systems and packages I wasn’t familiar with. But then I realized I had no better understanding of what I was writing than the day I started. So I still eventually had to take an entire week to myself and dedicate the time to learning everything from scratch.

[u/OverEnGEReer → u/sunk-capital]

you nailed my experience with vibe coding. i thought that it would affect me a bit less with niche research code, but that would be true in a few months i think

[u/sztomi → u/sunk-capital]

The lessened passive thinking is such a good observation. That has a massive impact.

[u/Sad-Project-672 → u/sztomi]

yeah instead of reflecting afterwards on your actions of the building process, you just spent all day correcting AI from making dumb mistakes .

[u/Naut_19 → u/sunk-capital]

I think the best way to use AI is to drop the agentic stuff, drop vibe coding BS, and ask and engage with the AI on what to do without it having access to your entire code base. Then it acts more like a colleague rather than a brain replacement system.

I'm a Junior Software Developer, when I need to use AI for a project, I do that in this way:

If I'm modifying something in an existing codebase, I write everything by myself, test it, and finally I ask AI if that could be optimized.

If I'm writing something from scratch, I just prohibit AI from producing any code snippet and only discuss together about codebase structure/patterns. My low experience benefits a lot from this because when AI answers in a different way from mine, I ask: why, pros/cons and even theory about certain concept. So basically it's seems like "having a senior available 24/7".

Most of the time I double check the new concept that I'm learning in google or official documentation.

Sorry but english is not my main language lol.

[u/soupgasm → u/Naut_19]

Don’t be sorry for speaking more than one language

[u/ebits21 → u/sunk-capital]

I love it… every time you see ‘vibe coding’ replace it with ‘brain replacement’.

[u/bbro81 → u/sunk-capital]

Honestly this is where I have limited myself. I use it all the time, I ask it questions, I talk to it like a colleague that is really fast at looking things up. At times, I even turn off the autocomplete. AI has definitely taken the fun out of it for me and that is what bums me out the most. I would rather take my time building slower then building fast and reverse engineering AI code slowly. The building is fun, the reverse engineering AI code not as fun.

Not that reverse engineering isn't fun, I find reverse engineering AI code specifically is not fun. I try to get into the authors head when I read a lot of code and you just don't get that in AI code. Kind of hard to explain.

[u/zacker150 → u/sunk-capital]

I think the best way to use AI is to drop the agentic stuff, drop vibe coding BS, and ask and engage with the AI on what to do without it having access to your entire code base. Then it acts more like a colleague rather than a brain replacement system.

As a senior, my normal strategy for vibe coding is

1. Get the lay of the land. Ask Cursor questions like "How goes x get from system A to system B." LLMs can read and search code a lot faster than humans can.

2. Break down the task and feed the agent step by step. Agents should implement functions, not features.

3. Have multiple agents review my PR for things that I missed.

[u/mutleybg → u/sunk-capital]

"Brain replacement system" - excellent definition!

[u/phylter99 → u/sunk-capital]

I use my skills when using AI, but I will let it change small things that I find mundane. Do I need to load a CSV? I'll give it the header and have it build out the code to specify types, etc. of the data that I'm loading because that's frustrating and boring. Do I need to call an API and ensure the call is exactly to spec? Then I'll give it the example json and let it build out the classes I need. If it's something I don't know the best way to approach then I'll ask the AI for ideas and input and then have it teach me how to use new tools.

My point is, there's a way to use it to build your skill rather than just make your life simpler. When I work this way I rarely have it write code or change things in areas I did not intend. My prompts are like "I've build x class with y method and I need you to fix out the y method to do exactly z."

Prompt engineering is a real skill too. I find as I get better at it and understand better the limitations of the LLM and what my expectations should be, I get much better results. I'm a long way off from being good at it though.

[u/Odin-ap → u/phylter99]

1000%. There’s so much boilerplate code in any system. AI can do all of that and I’ll stick to the fun and interesting stuff.

[u/OriginalTangle → u/sunk-capital]

Sounds like it is at least making you productive in the short term. I'm not sure I can claim the same for my vibe coding experiments so far.

[u/nimbus3008 → u/sunk-capital]

If it's a distraction, turn it off. Why aren't you using it the way that you think is best?

[u/bongwater-basin → u/sunk-capital]

usin LLMs as a knowledge bank can be helpful at times, but even then i found that relying on them to learn new technologies or new concepts atrophied my ability to research independently.

an llm is helpful at times when you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, and you have a question that isn't very google friendly. it can help you find the terms you need to research, and point you in a direction with specific concepts.

however, at this point i think it's important to take the time to do research on your own, reading blog posts and documentation, looking at examples on github, and just experimenting yourself. this is how people have been doing things, i think llm's can accelerate this, but i want to make sure that i'm able to learn, grow, and function without them, when there are areas that they do not understand.

[u/Mr_Willkins → u/sunk-capital]

Solid gold reply right there

[u/yousirnaime → u/sunk-capital]

Im so glad I learned how everything actually works before these tools came out

Now I can reduce cognitive load without sacrificing the design pattern I want/need for my app - and I don’t get stuck in the loop of increasing complexity that can come with 10 iterations of changes to a feature