alt Hacker NewsAnd why wouldn’t writing software be a skill issue? Yes, it’s an annoying meme, but we should expect that there are better and worse ways to write software. It would be weird if everyone got the same results regardless of experience.
I’m doubtful that the author’s recommendation always work, but I do some similar things and they do seem to help.
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Anyone who thinks they can produce high quality code from an LLM is mistaken about how to judge code. Trust me, I've seen enough PRs to last a life time. A lot of professionals wouldn't know good code if it slapped them in the face.
>And why wouldn’t writing software be a skill issue
You've missed the point. Nobody doubts writing code well or badly is indeed a skill issue.
The question is that "once you account for all of the things you need to do to make the code very high quality, did vibe coding actually provide any real value?"
I'm certain there are guardrails that help bolster vibe coding but I'm equally certain that when ive prompted something important I usually have to redo it enough times that just writing it manually myself usually would have been quicker.
Then I watch other people who code who dump on that opinion and I see total slop. They just can't tell the difference.
Not only that, but you really want it to be a skill. The book _Making Software_ describes skills as things you can get better at through practice, and talents as things you're born with.
I'd like to think the time and practice I've put into software engineering has made me better at it. If that's not true, then there's no reason to prefer senior or principal engineers with years of experience over newcomers.