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Comment by abxyz | Hacker News Reader

For many non-technical people, their relationships with software engineers were producing horrific results. Vibe coding is an indictment of what we’ve been delivering. That a vibe-coded disaster is in any way desirable reflects poorly on us. The branding by Karpathy is cute but irrelevant to its success.

I know people running vibe coded startups. The software quality is garbage. But it does what they want. And that’s all they care about for now. Until a time when software quality impacts their business more than losing control does, they’ll keep vibe coding, rather than hiring a software engineer who bastardises their ideas.

A garbage version of the thing you want is better than a perfect version of something you don’t want.

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Using AI doesn't necessitate "vibe coding" - there are smart ways to use AI, where you are managing and structuring the process, as well "vibe coding".

I guess the problem is that AI now allows non-programmers to program. It would be a bit like giving everyone a scalpel and they now either consider themselves to be surgeons, or give it a go regardless since now they can.

I'm not sure where you are getting software engineers that are "bastardising" your ideas?! You may want to look elsewhere, or pay for someone better !

Usually the problem is they are too cheap to pay good engineers, so they can only hire bad ones...

Are they preferring AI over humans because the AI gives them what they want and humans don't? I thought they prefer AI over humans because AI is much cheaper and faster.

>I know people running vibe coded startups. The software quality is garbage. But it does what they want. And that’s all they care about for now. Until a time when software quality impacts their business more than losing control does, they’ll keep vibe coding, rather than hiring a software engineer who bastardises their ideas.

Well, IKEA's furniture quality is garbage yet they make billions. It's cheap and fast. That's capitalism for you. (not implying that communist countries produced amazing products...)

I wouldn't say IKEA furniture is garbage, or comparable to some vibe coded mess that may contain who knows how many bugs and vulnerabilities.

IKEA furniture is obviously a trade off between quality and cost, but it does what it is designed to do.

Capitalism isn't just a race to the bottom - there are markets for products at all sorts of price points.

Maybe typical Supermarket produce section = IKEA is a better comparison than vibe coding = IKEA, although whether a tomato that tastes of nothing is really doing it's job is debatable.

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