←back to thread

AI agents: Less capability, more reliability, please

(www.sergey.fyi)
419 points serjester | 1 comments | 31 Mar 25 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
Show context
joshdavham ◴[31 Mar 25 15:35 UTC] No.43536242[source]▶
My rule of thumb has thus far been: if I’m gonna allow AI to write any bit of code for me, then I must, at a bare minimum, be able to understand that code.

There’s no way I could do what some of these “vibe coders” are doing where they allow AI to write code for them that they don’t even understand.

replies(4): >>43536457 #>>43536559 #>>43537637 #>>43538600 #
AlexandrB ◴[31 Mar 25 16:04 UTC] No.43536559[source]▶
I think there's a lot of code that gets written that's either disposable or effectively "write only" in that no one is expected to maintain it. I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

Basically, what's worse? "Vibes" code that no one understands or a cascade of 20 spreadsheets that no one understands? At least with the "vibes" code you can stick it in git and have some semblance of sane revision control and change tracking.

replies(6): >>43536629 #>>43536711 #>>43536898 #>>43537300 #>>43537330 #>>43537477 #
1. palmotea ◴[31 Mar 25 17:26 UTC] No.43537477[source]▶
> think there's a lot of code that gets written that's either disposable or effectively "write only" in that no one is expected to maintain it. I have friends who write a lot of this code for tasks like data analysis for retail and "vibe coding" isn't that crazy in such a domain.

> Basically, what's worse? "Vibes" code that no one understands or a cascade of 20 spreadsheets that no one understands?

Correction: it's a "cascade of 20 spreadsheets" that one person understood/understands.

Write only code still needs to work, and someone at some point needs to understand it well enough to know that it works.