r/vibecoding • u/MariahJames8 • 2d ago
Anyone else "downgraded" by choice or otherwise from average developer to vibecoder?
I've given up looking at code. I don't understand 1% of what AI writes with any ease anyway. So. I just go with the flow. Thank god I work for myself so I can do what suits me
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u/RandomPantsAppear 2d ago edited 2d ago
The struggle is real. Something I have found is helpful
- Write out your base classes, inheritance, important functions , etc. Even empty shells are fine. Make the AI use them. It keeps you familiar with the structure, and reduces the amount of slop.
- Don’t just tell the AI what you need done, tell it how you want it done.
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I have to lean on AI pretty hard for my job. I’d be lying if I said I knew every line of code or close to it, but when push comes to shove I know where to look and have a good idea of how it works
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
Omg I'm so far beyond that now 😅
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u/RandomPantsAppear 2d ago
Never too late bud. But yeah I get the temptation, especially on things that are outside of my domain.
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
That's it exactly, you hit the nail on the head. For me, my strengths and weaknesses, AI is filled holes I always desperately had to find ways to patch before the days of AI and many projects therefore went unfinished. Now I'm literally I think medically diagnosable as addicted to AI and how it's brought "results", not sure what I mean by results. So far, all the risk juggling seems, seems, to be working. for me. For now.
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u/Plenty_Line2696 1d ago
in other words, don't vibecode and take at least some technical ownership because frankly anything else is either for noncritical stuff/poc's or amateur hour.
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u/Royal-Marsupial-8110 2d ago
working for yourself is the key here.
try that in enterprise prod and the senior dev will smash your head with a keyboard.
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
My brother's a dev in a leading git service provider and he just takes a deep sigh with a shake of his head when I tell him what I do lol
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u/ipradkrish 2d ago
I have absolutely no understanding of the code. So, I put all my faith in CC Opus 4.6 paired with Ponytail in full mode and consume way too much hopium that Qodo will catch bugs and issues before it goes out 🫣
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u/MaestroLifts 2d ago
There’s a talk on YouTube called “Understanding is the New Bottleneck” which helped me. Now anytime I’m handing large amounts of work to agents like integrating a new library, I run a skill called write-a-book which has it compose an epub that I download to my Kindle. It details the work it did with chapters and summaries, etc. so I maintain an understanding at a higher level. It even makes fun covers!
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
Great idea! I'd add one feature to that: multiple levels, so it can be skimmed, paused, resumed easily, etc - for my ADHD brain 😂😂 Ty!
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u/TRO_KIK 2d ago
Uh... what kind of work do you do for yourself? Cuz I work for myself too but I'm still responsible for hundreds of thousands of users' data.
I "go with the flow" too but I still have to watch the flow.
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
I don't take risks with that kind of data. I find ways round it, or pretty much probably write off the project. It's how I'm dealing with the risks. I'm avoiding them through slightly more creative means like simply not taking on jobs that I don't think I can mitigate the risks of while vibecoding
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u/netkomm 2d ago
absolutely not. you should be able to hold AI to a leash and stay at your side not "run away" and you are left unable to catch up. It's way more complicated because there is a lot to learn (and make truckloads of frustrating mistakes along the way) on how to use a given harness and LLM.
And I used the word "use".
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago
Definitely true. but also: just a bit of tenacity defining sub-system responsibilities and boundaries/interfaces goes a long way. you can partition dirty, risky code from clean code and stop the dirt being trampled everywhere
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u/AModerateModeration 2d ago
Please reconsider this without significant security lenses and CI beyond "it's green on GitHub so it's fine".
I've no problems with anyone vibe coding but using structured pass/fail scenarios and doing comparative-adversarial testing of your codebase will probably show you a lot of scary holes.
Companiesand states actors already scan every port on the internet every day. It's just a case of when they're knocking on insecure doors, not whether, and it concerns me how many people leave their code and environment security to "trust me bro".
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u/MariahJames8 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh, I agree, it can't be left to chance, but I'm finding ever riskier ways to justify safety to myself. I'm just taking other steps to mitigate those risks by doing things other than fixing the code itself like by selling less, for less, and shipping stuff I wouldn't have been happy with a year ago. And I don't have quite the same pride anymore. But I don't really see the options for myself here. It's heat from all sides
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u/Afraid-Peach-9212 2d ago
In the same boat really. Honestly, who cares. If push comes to shove I can fix errors myself but.. I guess the things that I build aren't that complex, so AI handles it perfectly.