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The Vibe Tax

insufferable.dev

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Re: The Vibe Tax

#91

Post by the__alchemist »

ad_fontes wrote: post #22

I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe when I read these types of posts. My agents have never created code that is straight-up garbage and I have never flushed a week's worth of tokens down the toilet. I just can't identify with all the constant complaints about AI-assisted coding. And my biggest project isn't some hello world app. It's a self-hosted, privacy-focused personal financial management application t…

> I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe when I read these types of posts.

> And my biggest project isn't some hello world app. It's a self-hosted, privacy-focused personal financial management application that I intend to open source. It's about 126k LOC against 240k LOC of regression tests and 30k LOC of CI/CD pipeline.

Indeed; non-overlapping Overton windows.

edit: I'm going bluntly ask, after pondering this more: Is this satire?

Re: The Vibe Tax

#92

Post by rayiner »

tptacek wrote: post #64
WD-42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal finance tracker - the TODO app of 2026.

I'm not sure if this is snark or not, but yes, there is something fundamentally interesting about the fact that "personal finance tracker" is now a project with the same craft valence as a todo list, the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming. It also says something new about todo list programs, and programs of that ilk/level of complexity: they're now subthreshold programming, or, the way I look at things…

I replaced my todo list tracker with a vibe coded one, while waiting for things to happen in the middle of a trial. We're living in the future.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#93

Post by sodapopcan »

tptacek wrote: post #64
WD-42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal finance tracker - the TODO app of 2026.

I'm not sure if this is snark or not, but yes, there is something fundamentally interesting about the fact that "personal finance tracker" is now a project with the same craft valence as a todo list, the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming. It also says something new about todo list programs, and programs of that ilk/level of complexity: they're now subthreshold programming, or, the way I look at things…

For sure, but it doesn't say anything about what GP was trying to communicate: that they can't relate to how anyone making serious (emphasis and paraphrasing mine) app with "AI" is facing these problems.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#94

Post by chr15m »

robertoallende wrote: post #89

Ha! I just did what the article says. My own Open-Source Kanban Board and I've published a month ago. According to the metrics, it's doing well: https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/fancy-kanban And I've also made the personal finance tracker as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi4P4kL4IkQ Now, one caveat. I don't vibe code with one shot prompt. I use something called Micromanaged Driven Development (MMDD) whic…

> micro-managed

Perfect, this is exactly how I refer to my LLM workflow too!

Re: The Vibe Tax

#95

Post by tptacek »

rayiner wrote: post #92
tptacek wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is snark or not, but yes, there is something fundamentally interesting about the fact that "personal finance tracker" is now a project with the same craft valence as a todo list, the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming. It also says something new about todo list programs, and programs of that ilk/level of complexity: they're now subthreshold programming, or, the way I look at things…

I replaced my todo list tracker with a vibe coded one, while waiting for things to happen in the middle of a trial. We're living in the future.

It's fucking weird and I think we're not talking about it enough.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#96

Post by mrheosuper »

tptacek wrote: post #64
WD-42 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal finance tracker - the TODO app of 2026.

I'm not sure if this is snark or not, but yes, there is something fundamentally interesting about the fact that "personal finance tracker" is now a project with the same craft valence as a todo list, the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming. It also says something new about todo list programs, and programs of that ilk/level of complexity: they're now subthreshold programming, or, the way I look at things…

>the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming

The "hello world" is mostly for making sure your toolchain is working correctly.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#97

Post by mrheosuper »

uproarchat wrote: post #38
0x457 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i'm not sure why people expect agents to one shot everything to perfection with just a prompt. because that's how agents are marketed.

I've never seen model providers marketing like that. What examples have you seen?

I've seen a lot of cursor app, about some PO that has an idea for an app in the morning, then asking her agent to make it when her commuting, when arrive at office the app is done

Re: The Vibe Tax

#98

Post by fwipsy »

itishappy wrote: post #16

I feel like these are two competing goals: * the dev wants to describe an app in natural language then fall asleep while an AI works on it * the dev wishes that the same AI would write less comprehensive tests What exactly is a vibe coder to this dev?

They want it to write a rough draft which they can critique.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#99

Post by tptacek »

mrheosuper wrote: post #96
tptacek wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is snark or not, but yes, there is something fundamentally interesting about the fact that "personal finance tracker" is now a project with the same craft valence as a todo list, the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming. It also says something new about todo list programs, and programs of that ilk/level of complexity: they're now subthreshold programming, or, the way I look at things…

>the "hello world" of the last 20 years of programming The "hello world" is mostly for making sure your toolchain is working correctly.

Yes, and the todo app is for making sure you have the most basic understanding required to hold it right.

Re: The Vibe Tax

#100

Post by giancarlostoro »

polnoner wrote: post #79
giancarlostoro wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can one shot a prompt if I write down a nice spec file, Claude can do a lot in one shot. I test it every few months. With enough detail Claude will know what to do.

Opus 5 one shot an access virus B synth clone for me as a single page index.html that is more impressive than anything I have seen as a VST synth. That is also because I have been obsessed with this synth for almost 30 years. I built clones of it 20 years ago in reaktor. I know how to spec out every aspect of this synth and I gave Claude a 150 page pdf on digital filter design too. The results are far different than…

100% that is part of the problem. :)
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