Refactoring to understand and "vibe coding"

Original post: Refactoring to understand and “vibe coding”

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced the concept of vibe coding - using AI to generate code without fully understanding it. I briefly highlighted why using vibe coding for production code is a terrible idea.

In this article, Sean Goedecke goes more in-depth and identifies two main problems related to vibe coding:

1. Unless for small scripts or throw-away code, you’ll hit a size limit for the codebase. LLMs will not be able to have the full context, and they’ll need directions on where to look or apply changes
2. You’re unaware of the code written. You just know it works (maybe). This is a problem when non-technical people ask questions on details of how the code works or you need to introduce some changes (not relying on LLMs)

In both cases, this quote sums it up pretty well:

Code is NOT the most valuable artifact. Your understanding of the codebase is.

Even if AI speeds up development, a software engineer should always know the nitty gritty details spit out by the model. In other words, review the generated code as if another person wrote it - because ultimately, you’re the one responsible for it.