Is this sarcasm?
Even on HN, people don't comment purely out of 'rationality.'
I think AI generates well patterned code. Essentially, it handles a lot of situations with standardized code. But recognizing those patterns and knowing how to implement them are different things.
In programming, there are people who know how to implement something but can't explain the contract or the model behind it. For those people, AI might not be very useful, or they might be one of the rare few who write code far better than AI. Either way, the fact that an AI beat a top competitive programmer is enough to say it performs better than most people on HN. There's no point in arguing with them.
It's not that they're necessarily wrong. It's that they tend to generalize their own personal workflows.
AI can't do software engineering, but it can code well. Software engineering is the problem of transforming a complex open system into a closed one, taking a PM's requirements and building a single system out of them. AI can't do that. Why? Because AI can't adjust emphasis the way humans do. The design for frequently accessed parts and rarely accessed parts should be different, but AI treats everything uniformly, which makes it harder to modify later.
On the other hand, once a problem is closed and well defined, AI does much better than most people. It's logical and doesn't make the kind of leaps humans do, at least with frontier models. So there's no point in arguing with them at all.
Their experiences are based on their own workflows, so their perceptions naturally differ. And it's hard to tell whether they're saying it's bad because they truly understand it well, or because they don't understand it at all.
I'm not saying they should live in an echo chamber, but there's no reason to argue with them. It's better to trust statistical facts.
I could see it being true in a very regimented design, but I'm still skeptical, I'd like to see details of that design, and I question whether very strict adherence to design patterns limits the ability of the LLM to generate useful features.
For hobby projects or things I start casually, I usually do not think about errors and such at all. When it is a tool I want to build or need for myself, I really do not care about that part.
In my case, I do not contribute to open source at all. Mostly, I deliver code for factory systems or specific companies, and usually, there are strict enterprise requirements. (To be precise, there is always that mandatory code the lead developer on their end dictates, right?) That kind of code is mostly no fun, but it has to meet their requirements and often clashes with my own style. Having AI write that code for me is a huge relief.
In that sense, I think it is just a difference in personality and preferences. I originally became a programmer because I wanted to make games. I started programming because I found it fascinating to see things drawn and displayed on the screen. Becoming a programmer was all because making Flash games was so much fun... So in that regard, for me, writing code is just 'drawing what I want on the screen', which is why I guess I do not mind if the code is written by AI.
When I contribute to other people's projects, I do not use AI for anything other than English translation, but for my own projects, I have no hesitation.
Is this really just a difference in inclination? It is not that I did not enjoy writing code, but rather that seeing what I want rendered on the screen brings me more joy.
When the concept of 'vibe coding' first came out, I really hated it (since my knowledge was earned over 4 to 5 years of getting scolded by lead developers as a subcontractor and factory software provider). But thinking about it, what I really wanted to do as a developer was just to build the worlds I envisioned, so I decided not to let it bother me too much.
We talk often here on HN, and I really enjoy debating with you. I learn a lot from you.Mr."skydhash", I actually remember you quite often, and I even steal a few keywords from your posts sometimes. Because we have different tendencies, we occasionally clash, but having these conversations is exactly what makes it enjoyable.
Thank you for always replying. Have a great day, and I hope this does not offend you in any way.
I've been tinkering with things since a very young age, started learning about computers in middle school and really started with programming in college (I had the basics since high school, but I was interested more in 3D modeling). So writing code is more like tinkering for me and I don't really particularly care about the result other than making it happen (correctly). Once it's done, it's no longer a subject of intellectual interest.
So the joy of creating a program is in the creation itself. Once it's done I merely use it (or maintain it if it's part of the work).
I don't condemn AI use, even when doing vibe coding. My main issue is with the hypers stating that it's ok to lower a codebase quality or encouraging recklessness (and the dubious anecdotes) in a collaborative settings. If you can ensure quality and collaborate easily with your colleagues, go ahead. If you can't, then you shouldn't send PRs around.
> Thank you for always replying. Have a great day, and I hope this does not offend you in any way.
Have a great day too. I always appreciate the different point of views on a subject. It's a big world and everyone has their own perspectives.
I think this is exactly why our differences emerge.
I rarely collaborate with colleagues. In contract delivery work, that is simply how things operate. Usually, after the architecture is divided into modules, I take on the role of implementing one entire area from start to finish. Because of this, I actually have almost no experience with direct code level collaboration.
While multiple developers typically share a single code base and constantly exchange PRs, I take full responsibility for the internal implementation within the designed I/O interfaces, which seems to be where our divergence stems from.
When the modules are finally integrated, it only becomes a matter of accountability. In that sense, aside from my own website, I might not actually be doing any sustainable development. To be honest, as you know if you try AI vibe coding, the AI's abstraction and my abstraction are different. Because I am not used to its structure, it is not easy for me to manually fix the code generated by AI. Even if I do fix it, I mostly just tweak the surface level. In that regard, I completely agree that there are valid concerns regarding long term maintenance. However, since meeting strict deadlines and ensuring the required behavior are more important to me than long term maintainability, I tend to be more lenient toward AI generation.
It seems we reached different conclusions because we operate in completely different domains. It is always fascinating to see how perspectives differ depending on the field when having these conversations. Have a nice day.