Vibecoding isn't as fun as writing code by hand
The author reflects on the loss of personal satisfaction in software development due to the rise of AI-assisted coding. While AI allows for rapid prototyping, the author argues that it removes the intrinsic joy and challenge found in manual coding.
Why it matters
It highlights a growing cultural shift in the tech industry regarding the trade-off between productivity and the creative fulfillment of craftsmanship.
I like building things: it makes me happy. Learning and discovering things is a close second, but building is more satisfactory.
Since I’m not that good at actually, you know, building things, the thrill of “building”, in my case, has mostly come from writing software. Software is one of the easiest ways to create something satisfyingly useful out of nothing.
For a long time I’ve known, at some level, how much joy building gives me. [1] But it really sunk in while working on two recent hobby software projects. They were both dumb little Python scrapers that I cobbled together, that did something useful that I’d wanted for a long time. ( Link , link .) They were pretty basic, but gave me so much irrational pleasure. It was the most fun I’d had programming in years. [2]
Then, [cue Jaws theme song] AI came along.
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