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Vibe code is legacy code

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Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#91

Post by wubrr »

codingdave wrote: post #17

> We already have a phrase for code that nobody understands: legacy code. Wow, no. Bad misunderstanding of what legacy means. Long-lived organizations all eventually go through tech renovations, where they re-platform their business functionality onto more modern systems. But sometimes, the cost/benefit analysis to that re-platforming doesn't make sense... yet. The pieces of the business still running on the former p…

> People do understand it. Often, deeply understand it because they wrote it, and have lived and supported it for years.

You're assuming the people that wrote it are still there, which is often not the case.

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#92

Post by Joel_Mckay »

Slop in, Slop out...

In general, a good code base teaches future developers how to leverage a pragmatic solution in the context of the use-case. Often, "vibe" code relies on superfluous computational heuristics overhead to compensate for people that had zero notion of what they were doing in the first place.

To summarize, no one competent is fooled by low-value content farmed blogs, or the folks that rely on LLM. The age of Spam exceeding content is upon us. =3

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#93

Post by CharlieDigital »

starkparker wrote: post #88
CharlieDigital wrote: post #67

A story about a non-technical friend: friend vibe coded a SaaS last year and started generating revenue with almost no marketing; all word of mouth and inbound in a niche industry. Used Replit and Supabase to build the thing; I am still really impressed by what he was able to do given how complex the app ended up becoming as he interacted with customers. What I think happened: there are two incumbents in this space t…

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

Currently only equity.

And it only works because has proven the revenue model and found the customers already.

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#94

Post by singpolyma3 »

starkparker wrote: post #88
CharlieDigital wrote: post #67

A story about a non-technical friend: friend vibe coded a SaaS last year and started generating revenue with almost no marketing; all word of mouth and inbound in a niche industry. Used Replit and Supabase to build the thing; I am still really impressed by what he was able to do given how complex the app ended up becoming as he interacted with customers. What I think happened: there are two incumbents in this space t…

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

If he manages to do it, he'll know it's a business with legs and how much people will pay which is pretty invaluable knowledge

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#95

Post by keerthiko »

starkparker wrote: post #88
CharlieDigital wrote: post #67

A story about a non-technical friend: friend vibe coded a SaaS last year and started generating revenue with almost no marketing; all word of mouth and inbound in a niche industry. Used Replit and Supabase to build the thing; I am still really impressed by what he was able to do given how complex the app ended up becoming as he interacted with customers. What I think happened: there are two incumbents in this space t…

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

Likely still cheaper than whatever these competitors have spent building their product and then hiring blackhat saboteurs.

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#96

Post by Joel_Mckay »

starkparker wrote: post #88
CharlieDigital wrote: post #67

A story about a non-technical friend: friend vibe coded a SaaS last year and started generating revenue with almost no marketing; all word of mouth and inbound in a niche industry. Used Replit and Supabase to build the thing; I am still really impressed by what he was able to do given how complex the app ended up becoming as he interacted with customers. What I think happened: there are two incumbents in this space t…

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

He can expect 5 times what he would have paid the first time with a proper specification...

=3

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#97

Post by matt_cogito »

All production code will be written by AI. The question is not if. It is WHEN.

What we are seeing right in front of our eyes is how the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of software programming has gone from AI/LLMs poorly writing simple scripts, to being able to "zero-shoot" and "vibe code" a complex system, with a set of instructions written in natural language.

What we might be seeing in 2025 is how programming, the way it has been for the last decades, be disappearing and becoming a rare artisanal craft, not meant for being productive, but for showing off skill, for intellectual entertainment of the programmer.

I know how hard this hits the real coders. I am one, too. But I cannot unsee, what I have seen. The progress is so undeniable, there is no doubt left in me.

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#98

Post by mrmincent »

starkparker wrote: post #88
CharlieDigital wrote: post #67

A story about a non-technical friend: friend vibe coded a SaaS last year and started generating revenue with almost no marketing; all word of mouth and inbound in a niche industry. Used Replit and Supabase to build the thing; I am still really impressed by what he was able to do given how complex the app ended up becoming as he interacted with customers. What I think happened: there are two incumbents in this space t…

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

Probably a similar amount that it would have taken him to hire someone from the start, except he’s already validated the product and market.

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#99

Post by Joel_Mckay »

keerthiko wrote: post #95
starkparker wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Was it worth it? Yes, it is terrible, shoddy, insecure code, but he proved out a viable business with just a few hundred dollars of investment. How much is it costing him to hire someone to reimplement his idea correctly?

Likely still cheaper than whatever these competitors have spent building their product and then hiring blackhat saboteurs.

I wonder if people do that sort of thing..

Generally bandits are not interested in sparing anyone. =3

Re: Vibe code is legacy code

#100

Post by asadotzler »

hibikir wrote: post #4

I think you are not going far enough though: All code is legacy code. So vibe coding's ability to make writing more code faster isn't special because it's code nobody understands: Your hand-rolled code is also bad. Once you embrace the fact that all the code is legacy, then it's clear how writing more code, faster cannot be helpful from a maintenance POV: You are just creating more work for yourself. And no, librarie…

That's not what legacy means. Legacy means the people who understood it are gone and you're left with code that's hard to maintain because it's hard to understand because the people who understood it are gone.
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