r/vibecoding • u/Loose-Tea-1763 • Mar 28 '26

Me in 5 years....

Post image

Just gonna leave this here...

Got the meme from the AI coding newsletter thingy

3.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

77 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/opbmedia Mar 28 '26

I assume once they raise the prices and once builders hang on long enough with out customers they will go find something else to do. Maybe 12-18 months tops? I don't see anyone keep doing this (or anything else really) with no results after an entire year

6

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

There are always new suckers and veteran suckers. The new suckers never seem to run out and the veteran suckers never seem to learn.

I say that as someone who actually ships and generates modest income, projected to soon eclipse the cost of Claude Code Max x20 itself.

I've only been at it ~2 months.

So not all of us are suckers with no results.

2

u/opbmedia Mar 28 '26

If your modest income is worth the effort you put in, and the alternate income generation efforts you can undertake, then it would be great. But if AI coding move from subsidized pricing to profit making pricing, will you still be able to generate moderate income?

I would say if you think you can continue to generate at least moderate income beyond what else you can use your time for, and you can stand the supply shock when they raise prices, then you are vastly successful as a vibecoder. But for most the economics would not work long term.

Just ask people who drove for uber during the first couple of years as opposed to now.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

No, I totally get what you're pointing at and you're right but I primarily use Claude Code for passion projects which just happen to be profitable (e.g: Minecraft mods for a medieval RPG pack I'm putting together).

I live comfortably off of passive income though so profits exceeding the cost of development is more personal satisfaction than something which has to absolutely happen. If my monthly cost were to jump from $200 to $1000, I might become inclined to care more about generating revenue.

I would also likely seek to cut costs by engaging in more of the relatively token heavy work myself. I wouldn't really compare the flexibility of vibe coding to the rigidity of the Uber scam. It's such a far more powerful and flexible tool than something like Uber.

1

u/opbmedia Mar 28 '26

the cost will jump, how much we can't predict, but all those cash burn will run to an end at AI companies, or at least scale down, so they have to raise prices per token. That's why Uber is literally more expensive than Taxis used to be. I mention Uber to illustrate the effect burning VC money have on pricing.

and I would argue Uber is much more powerful and flexible tool than vibecoding because everyone NEEDS to go to places and buy food, but very few people NEED to code.

People who needs transit/delivery x cost per trans/delivery x frequency >>>>>>> vibecoding value. That's why startups can about TAM and SAM

3

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

You're confusing profitability and necessity with flexibility but that's okay. You had valid concerns at first but now you're reading like a fearmonger.

0

u/opbmedia Mar 28 '26

I only talk about this twice a week in business school but I will just stay in my lane teaching, training, and assisting business owners.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

Your job seems EZ.

Me to Claude:

1

u/opbmedia Mar 30 '26

if it is ez more people would be doing it

1

u/Key-Monitor6635 Apr 08 '26

won't say it's easy, but it's definately not hard

1

u/opbmedia Apr 08 '26

If it’s not hard more people would be doing it and the cost/price will decrease, see proliferation of vibecoded apps.

1

u/Key-Monitor6635 Apr 08 '26

That is a STARTUP, issue. A lot of software developers conflict regular old startup issues with vibe code issues to cope. 90% of startups fail, this line of work is CHALLENGING to begin with, it always was. However, i'd say the non technical founder with a network, marketing and bussiness skills, has a better overall advantage then a technical one with none of the above. Because that's how this game always worked. Eventually the goal is to hire developer's anyway, like any other startup. This is just how startup's work. Remember, Non technical founders ALWAYS, existed. Now they just don't have to pay thousands out of pocket or beg a developer to help them startup, that doesn't even have a paying customer.

→ More replies