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Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

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Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#22

Post by bigstrat2003 »

zxspectrum1982 wrote: post #20
__natty__ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It only hallucinates if you use it wrong.

That's a very lackluster argument. Even if everything you said was true (and to be clear: it absolutely isn't; LLMs will hallucinate no matter what as it's in their very nature), that's still a flaw in the tool. A good tool must not require convoluted dances to make it work halfway decently.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#24

Post by zxspectrum1982 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #22
zxspectrum1982 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It only hallucinates if you use it wrong. That's a very lackluster argument. Even if everything you said was true (and to be clear: it absolutely isn't; LLMs will hallucinate no matter what as it's in their very nature), that's still a flaw in the tool. A good tool must not require convoluted dances to make it work halfway decently.

AI code assistants are lazy junior developers (so you need to keep an eye on everything they do, e.g. make sure they don't forget or ignore to do some parts of the work you tell them to do) with the ability to do research as in-depth as a senior developer. Now make your mind about it. When driving an AI code assistant, you must act like you are a softare development manager managing a team of junior developers.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#25

Post by majorchord »

zxspectrum1982 wrote: post #20
__natty__ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It only hallucinates if you use it wrong

Sorry but this is demonstrably false. For starters, see the "R's in strawberry" meme.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#26

Post by latentsea »

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.

It's the engineer that needs to be smart enough to do that on their own. Else, they're just a vibe coder. How could they be anything more?

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#27

Post by happytoexplain »

paool wrote: post #21

The vibe coder doesn't know what they don't know, so they rely on the LLM to make decisions. The Software Engineer will know what decision to make even without looking at the code.

Yes - the idea of "not knowing what you don't know" is, in my opinion, one of the most important concepts missing from modern programmers (and probably everybody), especially in the age of LLMs. It's the concept that, personally, most occupies my mind every day, and seems to never come into the minds of many of the innumerable contractors with whom I work.

Re: Vibe Coder vs. Software Engineer

#29

Post by dmackerman »

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.

Giving it access to JIRA doesn't make the code it produces more mergable, or reduce the cognitive load and technical debt a massive PR written by AI introduces into complex codebases.
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