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Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

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Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#11

Post by tormeh »

dwattttt wrote: post #10
analogpixel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The analogy, not the 1 to 1 translation, is that the architects come up with the ideas and pass them off to the workers to implement.

You're still missing a gap in the middle, where someone knows standards & specifications like "this material in a building this tall will collapse when it gets over 12 stories".

In big enough projects this is the job of a civil engineer. The architect vs engineer fight that ensues is widely memed. This is of course mostly an issue in one-off projects with ambitious architects.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#12

Post by trollbridge »

manuisin wrote: post #6
cat_plus_plus wrote: post #2

There are priorities here which are not mutually exclusive. If you are building the next big thing in your garage, polishing it before establishing it's in fact the next big thing is a waste of time. If it really is, early adopters / investors will seize on it like they did on AI. Once that is established, yes there is space for adults in the room to adopt proper procedures for large scale production. I do believe AI…

Agreed. I really don’t think this is worth arguing that AI can be a huge help. I was skeptical until April even after hearing many friends tell me how good Opus 4.5 was last year. Not working on the “next big” thing but I only recently started finding that AI could solve complex problems for me starting around ChatGPT 5.5. Working on a game engine. Some of the quite isolated modules I’ve had it build are not good cod…

One of the first things I do before spending time with a coding agent on generating something is having a pretty long reasoning session where I pressure the agent to find out if the problem I'm solving has been solved before, at all, in any way. Most of the time, it has, and it probably doesn't have utility beyond my own personal education in solving it again.

That seems to be what most of these projects that get accused of being "vibe coded" are doing. Incidentally - there's nothing wrong with writing your own useful utilities, and educational to package these up for distribution/release, but don't be surprised if not another soul in the world finds the particular need you had to be one they share.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#13

Post by Garlef »

> A vibe coder is someone who wants to test an idea by generating software as a prototype. A software engineer is someone who thinks about the entire software development lifecycle.

I don't think it's such a simple dichotomy; And dismissing the possibilites of agentic coding as inherently non-SWE is rather short-sighted: You CAN use agents as a software engineering tool.

It's just that it's often misaligned with the processes we're used to. But that does not mean that LLM-agents a bad tool.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#15

Post by __natty__ »

appstack wrote: post #14

Claude is smart enough now to transition a vibe coder into a software engineer if you provide access to SDLC pipeline.

I disagree. At least from my experience it still hallucinates a lot of times - it's just better at hiding that. That causes issues and it's hard to believe for me inexperienced person can spot this problems.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#16

Post by nicce »

cat_plus_plus wrote: post #2

There are priorities here which are not mutually exclusive. If you are building the next big thing in your garage, polishing it before establishing it's in fact the next big thing is a waste of time. If it really is, early adopters / investors will seize on it like they did on AI. Once that is established, yes there is space for adults in the room to adopt proper procedures for large scale production. I do believe AI…

> If you are building the next big thing in your garage, polishing it before establishing it's in fact the next big thing is a waste of time.

Ideas are cheap. The execution matters and you need to polish it at least until certain level.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#17

Post by sublinear »

Garlef wrote: post #13

> A vibe coder is someone who wants to test an idea by generating software as a prototype. A software engineer is someone who thinks about the entire software development lifecycle. I don't think it's such a simple dichotomy; And dismissing the possibilites of agentic coding as inherently non-SWE is rather short-sighted: You CAN use agents as a software engineering tool. It's just that it's often misaligned with the…

From the article:

> The difference is where the responsibility starts and where it ends.

I think you're missing the point. The post is agreeing with you about using the right tool for the job.

When there's a responsibility to fully understand, demonstrate, and discuss the code at length with various stakeholders, using an LLM can get in the way. There's nobody stopping you from hammering a screw. It's just... cringe.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#18

Post by [deleted] »

analogpixel wrote: post #9
happytoexplain wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't follow at all - architects are much more aware of standards than you are implying. They are not just clueless artists saying "please make it look like this". It's insulting to compare them to vibe-coders. Unrelated: The phrase is "flesh out". You "flush out" unwanted elements, like rodents.

The analogy, not the 1 to 1 translation, is that the architects come up with the ideas and pass them off to the workers to implement.

[deleted]

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#19

Post by stephth »

Garlef wrote: post #13

> A vibe coder is someone who wants to test an idea by generating software as a prototype. A software engineer is someone who thinks about the entire software development lifecycle. I don't think it's such a simple dichotomy; And dismissing the possibilites of agentic coding as inherently non-SWE is rather short-sighted: You CAN use agents as a software engineering tool. It's just that it's often misaligned with the…

> dismissing the possibilites of agentic coding as inherently non-SWE is rather short-sighted

The author does not. I recommend reading the whole article, IMO it shows rare (but growing) maturity about software development during this current age of AI tools (I mean in terms of practical day to day use, eg. ignoring (like everybody in tech) the environmental costs). But you might have been misled by how many people have adopted “vibe coding” to mean any use of ai in software dev.

From the article:

> A vibe coder gives the model a goal, but a software engineer gives the model a bounded task. The bounded task is where the engineering happens. Use this interface. Do not touch this layer. And so on. A good prompt is not magic here. It is usually evidence that the engineer already understands the boundary.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#20

Post by zxspectrum1982 »

__natty__ wrote: post #15
appstack wrote: post #14

Claude is smart enough now to transition a vibe coder into a software engineer if you provide access to SDLC pipeline.

I disagree. At least from my experience it still hallucinates a lot of times - it's just better at hiding that. That causes issues and it's hard to believe for me inexperienced person can spot this problems.

It only hallucinates if you use it wrong. Give it enough requirements, context, keep an eye on all it does (like it were a junior developer), and you will get awesome results. AI code assistants are a fantastic tool that can make you 10-100x more productive provided that you know how to use them.

Most of the people saying the kind of things you say don't know how to properly use an AI code assistant.

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