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Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

arxiv.org

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Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#41

Post by jghn »

_cenw wrote: post #31
runtimepanic wrote: post #4

The title is doing a lot of work here. What resonated with me is the shift from “writing code” to “steering systems” rather than the hype framing. Senior devs already spend more time constraining, reviewing, and shaping outcomes than typing syntax. AI just makes that explicit. The real skill gap isn’t prompt cleverness, it’s knowing when the agent is confidently wrong and how to fence it in with tests, architecture,…

Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.

That's kind of the point here. Once a dev reached a certain level, they often weren't doing much "relaxing code typing" anyways before the AI movement. I don't find it to be much different than being a tech lead, architect, or similar role.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#42

Post by tikimcfee »

_cenw wrote: post #31
runtimepanic wrote: post #4

The title is doing a lot of work here. What resonated with me is the shift from “writing code” to “steering systems” rather than the hype framing. Senior devs already spend more time constraining, reviewing, and shaping outcomes than typing syntax. AI just makes that explicit. The real skill gap isn’t prompt cleverness, it’s knowing when the agent is confidently wrong and how to fence it in with tests, architecture,…

Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.

Ya know, I have to admit feeling something like this. Normally, the amount of stuff I put together in a work day offers a sense of completion or even a bit of a dopamine bump because of a "job well done". With this recent work I've been doing, it's instead felt like I've been spending a multiplier more energy communicating intent instead of doing the work myself; that communication seems to be making me more tired than the work itself. Similar?

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#43

Post by simonw »

websiteapi wrote: post #15

we've never seen a profession drive themselves so aggressively to irrelevance. software engineering will always exist, but it's amazing the pace to which pressure against the profession is rising. 2026 will be a very happy new year indeed for those paying the salaries. :)

We've been giving our work away to each other for free as open source to help improve each other's productivity for 30+ years now and that's only made our profession more valuable.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#44

Post by teaearlgraycold »

_cenw wrote: post #31
runtimepanic wrote: post #4

The title is doing a lot of work here. What resonated with me is the shift from “writing code” to “steering systems” rather than the hype framing. Senior devs already spend more time constraining, reviewing, and shaping outcomes than typing syntax. AI just makes that explicit. The real skill gap isn’t prompt cleverness, it’s knowing when the agent is confidently wrong and how to fence it in with tests, architecture,…

Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.

I like to alternate focusing on AI wrangling and writing code the old fashioned way.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#46

Post by simonw »

joenot443 wrote: post #40
simonw wrote: post #33

This is pretty recent - the survey they ran (99 respondents) was August 18 to September 23 2025 and the field observations (watching developers for 45 minute then a 30 minute interview, 13 participants) were August 1 to October 3. The models were mostly GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4. The study was too early to catch the 5.x Codex or Claude 4.5 models (bar one mention of Sonnet 4.5.) This is notable because a lot of acade…

Thanks Simon - always quick on the draw. Off your intuition, do you think the same study with Codex 5.2 and Opus 4.5 would see even better results?

Depends on the participants. If they're cutting-edge LLM users then yes, I think so. If they continue to use LLMs like they would have back in the first half of 2025 I'm not sure if a difference would be noticeable.

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#47

Post by [deleted] »

yacthing wrote: post #38
banbangtuth wrote: post #9

You know what. After seeing all these articles about AI/LLM for these past 4 years, about how they are going to replace me as software developers and about how I am not productive enough without using 5 agents and being a project manager. I. Don't. Care. I don't even care about those debates outside. Debates about do LLM work and replace programmers? Say they do, ok so what? I simply have too much fun programming. I…

Easy to say if you either: (1) already have enough money to survive without working, or (2) don't realize how hard of a life it would be to "flip burgers" to make a living in 2026. We live very good lives as software developers. Don't be a fool and think you could just "flip burgers" and be fine.

[deleted]

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#49

Post by bugglebeetle »

_cenw wrote: post #31
runtimepanic wrote: post #4

The title is doing a lot of work here. What resonated with me is the shift from “writing code” to “steering systems” rather than the hype framing. Senior devs already spend more time constraining, reviewing, and shaping outcomes than typing syntax. AI just makes that explicit. The real skill gap isn’t prompt cleverness, it’s knowing when the agent is confidently wrong and how to fence it in with tests, architecture,…

Is anyone else getting more mentally exhausted by this? I get more done, but I also miss the relaxing code typing in the middle of the process.

Nah, I don’t miss at all typing all the tests, CLIs, and APIs I’ve created hundreds of times before. I dunno if I it’s because I do ML stuff, but it’s almost all “think a lot about something, do some math, and and then type thousands of lines of the same stuff around the interesting work.”

Re: Professional software developers don't vibe, they control

#50

Post by ryanobjc »

llmslave2 wrote: post #24
banbangtuth wrote: post #9

You know what. After seeing all these articles about AI/LLM for these past 4 years, about how they are going to replace me as software developers and about how I am not productive enough without using 5 agents and being a project manager. I. Don't. Care. I don't even care about those debates outside. Debates about do LLM work and replace programmers? Say they do, ok so what? I simply have too much fun programming. I…

I simply will not spend my life begging and coaxing a machine to output working code. If that is what becomes of this profession, I will just do something else :)

If I wanted to do that, I'd just move into engineering management and work with something less temperamental and predictable - humans.

I'd at least be more likely to get a boost in impact and ability to affect decision making, maybe.

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