Perverse incentives of vibe coding
fredbenenson.medium.com
Perverse incentives of vibe coding
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Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#2> There was no standardization of parts in the probe. Two widgets intended to do almost the same job could be subtly different or wildly different. Braces and mountings seemed hand carved. The probe was as much a sculpture as a machine.
> Blaine read that, shook his head, and called Sally. Presently she joined him in his cabin.
> “Yes, I wrote that," she said. "It seems to be true. Every nut and bolt in that probe was designed separately. It's less surprising if you think of the probe as having a religious purpose. But that's not all. You know how redundancy works?"
> “In machines? Two gilkickies to do one job. In case one fails."
> “Well, it seems that the Moties work it both ways."
> “Moties?"
> She shrugged. "We had to call them something. The Mote engineers made two widgets do one job, all right, but the second widget does two other jobs, and some of the supports are also bimetallic thermostats and thermoelectric generators all in one. Rod, I barely understand the words. Modules: human engineers work in modules, don't they?"
> “For a complicated job, of course they do."
> “The Moties don't. It's all one piece, everything working on everything else. Rod, there's a fair chance the Moties are brighter than we are."
- The Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1974)
[…too bad that today's LLMs are not brighter than we are, at least when it comes to writing correct code…]
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#3> it might be difficult for AI companies to prioritize code conciseness when their revenue depends on token count.
Would open source, local models keep pressure on AI companies to prioritize the usable code, as code quality and engineering time saved are critical to build vs buy discussions?
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#4Are using the APIs worth the extra cost vs using the web tools? I haven't used any API tools, I am not a programmer, but I have generated many millions of tokens in the web canvas, something that would cost way more than the $20 I spend for them.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#5> it might be difficult for AI companies to prioritize code conciseness when their revenue depends on token count. Would open source, local models keep pressure on AI companies to prioritize the usable code, as code quality and engineering time saved are critical to build vs buy discussions?
Depends if open source models can remain relevant once the status quo of "company burns a bunch of VC money to train a model, open sources it, and generates little if any revenue" runs out of steam. That's obviously not sustainable long term.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#6> There was no standardization of parts in the probe. Two widgets intended to do almost the same job could be subtly different or wildly different. Braces and mountings seemed hand carved. The probe was as much a sculpture as a machine. > Blaine read that, shook his head, and called Sally. Presently she joined him in his cabin. > “Yes, I wrote that," she said. "It seems to be true. Every nut and bolt in that probe wa…
That book is very much fun and also I never understood why Larry Niven is so obsessed with techno feudalism and gender roles. I think this is my favourite book but I think his best book is maybe Ringworld.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#7This article captures a lot of the problem. It’s often frustrating how it tries to work around really simple issues with complex workarounds that don’t work at all. I tell it the secret simple thing it’s missing and it gets it. It always makes me think, god help the vibe coders that can’t read code. I actually feel bad for them.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#8> it might be difficult for AI companies to prioritize code conciseness when their revenue depends on token count. Would open source, local models keep pressure on AI companies to prioritize the usable code, as code quality and engineering time saved are critical to build vs buy discussions?
Depends if open source models can remain relevant once the status quo of "company burns a bunch of VC money to train a model, open sources it, and generates little if any revenue" runs out of steam. That's obviously not sustainable long term.
Maybe we will get some university backed SETI like projects to replace all those personal mining rigs now that that hype is finally fading.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#9This article captures a lot of the problem. It’s often frustrating how it tries to work around really simple issues with complex workarounds that don’t work at all. I tell it the secret simple thing it’s missing and it gets it. It always makes me think, god help the vibe coders that can’t read code. I actually feel bad for them.
I fear that’s going to end up being a significant portion of engineers in the future.
Re: Perverse incentives of vibe coding
#10In section 4, the author writes "... cheaper than Claude 3.7 ($0.80 per token vs. $3)".
This is an obvious mistake, the price is per Megatoken, not per token.