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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

I think there's a lot of code that gets written that's either disposable or effectively "write only" in that no one is expected to maintain it. I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

Basically, what's worse? "Vibes" code that no one understands or a cascade of 20 spreadsheets that no one understands? At least with the "vibes" code you can stick it in git and have some semblance of sane revision control and change tracking.

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> I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

That sort of makes sense, but then again... if you run some analysis code and it spits out a few plots, how do you know what you're looking at is correct if you have no idea what the code is doing?

> how do you know what you're looking at is correct if you have no idea what the code is doing?

Does it reaffirm the biases of the one who signs my paychecks? If so, then the code is correct.

Lol, that's definitely a factor. Actually plotting is the perfect example because python is really popular in the space and matplotlib sucks so much. While an analyst may not understand Python very well, they often understand the data itself through either previous projects or through other analysis tools. It's kind of like vibe coding a UI for a backend that's hand built.

LOL thanks for the laughs. But yes seriously though, most kinds of data analysis jobs several rungs down the ladder where the result is not in a critical path amount to reaffirming what upper people believe. Don't rock the boat.

> I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain

Considering the hallucinations we've all seen I don't know how they can be comfortable using AI generated data analysis to drive the future direction of the business.

> think there's a lot of code that gets written that's either disposable or effectively "write only" in that no one is expected to maintain it. I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

> Basically, what's worse? "Vibes" code that no one understands or a cascade of 20 spreadsheets that no one understands?

Correction: it's a "cascade of 20 spreadsheets" that one person understood/understands.

Write only code still needs to work, and someone at some point needs to understand it well enough to know that it works.

> I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

I think this is a great use case for AI, but the analyst still needs to understand what the code that is output does. There are a lot of ways to transform data that result in inaccurate or misleading results.

Vibe coders focus on writing tests, and verifying function/correctness. It’s not like they don’t read _any_ of the code. They get the vibes, but ignore the details.

This seems optimistic -- prescriptive, rather than descriptive. From what I've observed, vibe coders largely do not include tests; they do verify functionality/correctness, but not rigorously or repeatably.

Huh. The whole promise of vibe coding is that you don't have to pay attention to the details.

Yeah, of course. I don’t think what I described could possibly be misconstrued as someone paying attention to details.

"You're programming wrong wrong" /s

> Vibe coders focus on writing tests

From the boasting I've seen, Vibe coders are also using AI to slop out their tests as well.

Worry not, we can solve this by using AI to generate tests to test the tests.

Testing the tests is pretty much the definition of being a vibe coder.

Yeah and tests are much easier to validate than functions.

> what's worse? "Vibes" code that no one understands or a cascade of 20 spreadsheets that no one understands? At least with the "vibes" code you can stick it in git and have some semblance of sane revision control and change tracking.

You can for spreadsheets too.

two wrongs don't make a right

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