Are "real" engineers/developers (secretly) hating on non-technical vibecoders?
I made my first chrome extension using solely Chatgpt. I wanted to see if it was really possible for a non-technical person like me. I was really proud of myself, it inspired me to want to build more! But when I tried to add more features to it, I think the code got too bloated and messy and it just blew up so I just continue to use the extension for the basic need I have to save and organize notes I make on products that are interesting to me without all the bells and whistles I would have wanted. I wasn’t trying to make money on it, just something to prove I could do it, and I got to feel what it was like to launch something on Product Hunt - yay!
But I’ve also seen alot of posts/comments from more technical folks around the web hating on non technical people for believing that you can go from 0-1 and that these new tools are best to speed up work for technical people who already know how to code, not for newbies who end up with something that works by copying and pasting crappy code spit out by LLMs of their choice.
Is the discomfort around people who believe they can really make money just vibecoding, or more around the idea that someone non technical is claiming they can replace a engineer? OR something else?
I personally am psyched to move towards a world where every day people can potentially solve their own day to day problems and inefficiencies by building a "good-enough" tool using AI. And I assume if someone ended up coding something awesome and worthy that people would want to pay for, then at that time, they could invest more money to bring the code up to par. Feels more like an inexpensive MVP option until there is known PMF, which I see as a better approach than investing into perfecting everything to launch to crickets and no one wants it…
Are you technical? What’s your take on the new AI coding tools out there and where do you see non-technical vibecoders fitting in, if at all?
Replies
Parsagon
As a technical person, I'm sure plenty of the hate comes from feeling threatened, uncomfortable, etc.
That being said, I think plenty of the hate also comes from technical people watching vibecoders make costly mistakes that a technical person then has to try to fix. If you're vibe coding a personal project for fun, I think most people don't have a problem with that. But if you're vibe coding in a professional setting, you can cause problems that will make people mad pretty fast (e.g., the Replit incident).
I think an analogy can be drawn with doctors/nurses hating on WebMD and similar online health resources. WebMD is great for low-stakes situations, but when you use it in situations where you really shouldn't—that's when you'll see doctors get really upset imo.
Yes! :D That's the answer.
I haven't met a senior developer/programmer who would say a good word about vibe-coders.
It must be so frustrating for them that they had been building their careers for 10+ years with limited salary and then BOOM! 💥
Some wannabe vibe-coder without proper coding/programming knowledge exited a vibe-coded solution for 6-figures.
It's not really "secretly." On sites like Reddit, vibe coding is openly hated on. I've seen a lot of people trying to hack vibe coded projects too, trying to get user data, take down the project, etc.
Product Hunt
I just posted https://www.producthunt.com/p/vibecoding/hailey-quach-i-revolted-against-vibe-coding-until-i-realized-i-d-been-doing-it-all-along on behalf of Hailey Quach. She also wanted to share some thoughts here on this thread!
I’m currently working closely with a senior solution architect who’s fully on board with vibe coding. With this approach, he’s been able to roll out deployable prototypes in a fraction of the time it used to take (some of which are being used by the whole team right now!). Of course, he still double-checks everything the code generator produces. But the thing many people don't understand is that vibe coding turns you from a developer into more of a technical product manager, orchestrating everything from a higher level while requiring you to remain technical. It’s a powerful approach, but not a lot of people know how to use it effectively.