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What is going on right now?

(catskull.net)
378 points todsacerdoti | 7 comments | 22 Aug 25 07:08 UTC | HN request time: 1.103s | source | bottom
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ascendantlogic ◴[22 Aug 25 13:42 UTC] No.44984607[source]▶
> Here’s the thing - we want to help. We want to build good things. Things that work well, that make people’s lives easier. We want to teach people how to do software engineering!

This is not what companies want. Companies want "value" that customers will pay for as quickly and cheaply as possible. As entities they don't care about craftsmanship or anything like that. Just deliver the value quickly and cheaply. Its this fundamental mismatch between what engineers want to do (build elegant, well functioning tools) and what businesses want to do (the bare minimum to get someone to give them as much money as possible) that is driving this sort of pulling-our-hair-out sentiment on the engineering side.

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Lauris100 ◴[22 Aug 25 13:57 UTC] No.44984767[source]▶
“The only way to go fast, is to go well.” Robert C. Martin

Maybe spaghetti code delivers value as quickly as possible in the short term, but there is a risk that it will catch up in the long term - hard to add features, slow iterations - ultimately losing customers, revenue and growth.

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ascendantlogic ◴[22 Aug 25 14:00 UTC] No.44984798[source]▶
Anecdotally I'm already seeing this on a small scale. People who vibe coded a prototype to 1 mil ARR are realizing that the velocity came at the cost of immense technical debt. The code has reached a point where it is essentially unmaintainable and the interest payments on that technical debt are too expensive. I think there's going to be a lot of money to be made over the next few years un-fucking these sort of things so these new companies can continue to scale.
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busssard ◴[22 Aug 25 14:06 UTC] No.44984866[source]▶
if i have 1mil ARR, i can hire some devs to remake my product from scratch. and use the Vibecoded Example as a design mockup.

If i manage to vibecode something alone that takes off, even without technical expertise, then you validated the AI usecase...

Before Claude i had to make a paper prototype or a figma, now i can make Slop that looks and somehow functions the way i want. i can make preliminary tests, and even get to some proof of concept. in some cases even 1million $ annual revenue...

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1. ascendantlogic ◴[22 Aug 25 14:08 UTC] No.44984893[source]▶
Yes, this is exactly where AI shines: PoCs and validating ideas. The problems come when you're ready to scale. And the "I can hire some devs to remake my product from scratch" part is the exact money making scenario some of my consulting friends are starting to see take shape in the market.
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2. Workaccount2 ◴[22 Aug 25 14:16 UTC] No.44984984[source]▶
This is where the missmatch is, the future is not in scaled apps, the future is in everyone being able to make their own app.

You don't have to feature pack if you are making a custom app for your custom use case, and LLMs are great with slim narrow purpose apps.

I don't think LLMs will replace developers, but I am almost certain they will radically change how end users use computers, even if the tech plateaus right now.

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3. const_cast ◴[22 Aug 25 14:36 UTC] No.44985202[source]▶
But people say this about technology in software engineering time and time again.

VB? VBA macros in Excel? Delphi? Uhh... Wordpress? Python as a language?

Well you see these are just for prototypes. These are just for making an MVP. They're not the real product.

But they are the real product. I've almost never seen these been successfully used as just for prototyping or MVPs. It always becomes the real codebase and it's a hot fucking mess 99% of the time.

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4. disqard ◴[22 Aug 25 14:57 UTC] No.44985417[source]▶
You're not wrong about that.

What ends up happening is that humans get "woven" into the architecture/processes, so that people with pagers keep that mess going even though it really should not be running at that scale.

"Throw one away" rarely happens.

5. ascendantlogic ◴[22 Aug 25 16:45 UTC] No.44986716[source]▶
> the future is in everyone being able to make their own app.

Everyone can do their own plumbing and electrical work in their homes too. For some people it works out, for others it's still better to pay someone else to do it for them.

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6. Workaccount2 ◴[22 Aug 25 18:11 UTC] No.44987749{3}[source]▶
I don't think basic software apps have anywhere near the risk profile of electrical or plumbing work.

I'm pretty comfortable letting my mom vibecode a plant watering tracker. Not so much wiring up a distribution box.

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7. ascendantlogic ◴[23 Aug 25 18:02 UTC] No.44997846{4}[source]▶
Would you be comfortable letting your mother vibe code a budgeting app that had access to her various banking and financial service credentials?