Vibe coding and technical debt
Don’t get me wrong: I appreciate the unbridled creativity that can be found in just riding a vibe on an AI platform. If you haven’t already tried it, I suggest sitting down with Roo Code and seeing how it feels to blast out working software with just a few keystrokes.
At first, vibe coding is intoxicating. You can rapidly produce all the basic application infrastructure without even thinking about it. It’s like driving a 4×4 that sails over speed bumps. Pretty soon, though, you will find yourself off-roading in the ravines of wack-a-mole fix-and-break, like the above user did. Suddenly, that landscape of magically functional code becomes a yawning chasm of technical debt that you have to figure out. And if you don’t have the coding background to understand what you’re up against, you will drown in it.
Sure, you can try using AI to fix the things that are breaking, but have you tried it? Have you ever been stuck with an AI assistant confidently running you and your code around in circles? Even with something like Gemini CLI and DevTools integration (where the AI has access to the server and client-side outputs) it can so easily descend into a maddening cycle. In the end, you are mocked by your own unwillingness to roll up your sleeves and do some work.
