do not fold, spindle, or mutilate

I share many rational criticisms that have been extensively written about online, but here I’ll focus on another reason: I just don’t want to use them. I don’t like the “vibes,” and they feel gross to me. I am open to being convinced, but so far, I’m just not. I try to care, and I should be motivated to care, but either I can’t or I just don’t.

From the sounds of it, I might not be able to have a career in software development if I can’t get off my high horse and start vibe coding. If the boosters are right, this should be an easy thing, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Nothing motivates me to vibe code, not even the fear of being left behind in a field that I love and that until now, felt made for me. I feel alone, and it feels insane.

I love software more than I hate LLMs

I imagine that someday not altogether too far in the future, I too will have incorporated a coding LLM of some kind into my workflow. I am not eager for this day. But software development is collaborative, and LLM tooling is popular.

I trust the human part of the software development process. One such aspect is collaboration. I care deeply about being able to work on all kinds of teams, including alongside developers who use LLM tooling for some or many aspects of their workflows. In order for my work to be compatible with the work of other humans, I accept that I must learn to work compatibly with LLM code that may be generated from the prompts of those humans.

I have tried to see more value in LLM code, but I remain unconvinced in the long term. I understand that there are some code models capable of producing large amounts of passable, occasionally even useful, code, especially boilerplate. But I have yet to be convinced of how those benefits outweigh other organizational risks.

Should my organization encourage it, I would find it agreeable to use LLMs for work. I trust my team’s management to have the best interests of the project and organization at heart. That external motivation of having human trust in my human team would be enough for me to adopt, in good faith, LLM usage to my own workflow.

My preference, for myself, is to remain comfortable developing software without the use of LLM tooling. A common underlying goal behind my own software projects is personal skill-building and a little bit of self expression. The act of doing the work myself of design and problem-solving gives me the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction which motivates and drives me to become a stronger developer.

Am I really a hater?

I don’t see myself that way.

Wrangling code can be an incredibly empowering form of expression. Software is intimidating, and it’s everywhere. It underpins communication with loved ones. It delivers access to art such as music, movies, and video games. It is embedded in critical systems we interact with throughout the world, from medical wearables to vehicles on the road and in the sky. By reading and writing code, we can assert ourselves as taking a more active part in these processes, feeling less in the dark about systems we otherwise wouldn’t understand.

I respect the journey of every person whom a LLM model has given the confidence to start programming. I hope vibe coders get real value from their projects and one day feel comfortable enough to drop the word “vibe” when describing their work, even when said work included large amounts of LLM tooling. I don’t see vibe-coded success stories as evidence of coding models overtaking human capability. I see a new tool, leveraged by humans, to assist in making technology work for them.

For me, the sense of fulfillment from software as creative work comes through hard-won understanding. When the code doesn’t work and you can’t seem to figure out why, the sense of frustration can feel terrible. But when eventually you find what you misunderstood and things make sense, the feeling of triumph is twice as strong.

I can hope that vibe coding experience inspires developers to try creating software with reduced reliance on LLMs. But at the end of the day I am still happy for someone that they tried their hand at coding at all. It is a practice I love, and I am glad to share it, even if others’ methods aren’t something I would choose for my own work.

A lot of vibe coded projects are surely garbage. But I can relate to this: I have plenty experience producing manually-coded garbage, and I wouldn’t have the confidence and skill that I do today without that foundational practice and the chance to learn from my mistakes. Someone else’s tools used for practicing can very well be different from mine, and that in itself is nothing I see a problem with. The willingness to try and the humility to learn are foundational aspects of developing any skill, and I see both of these as profoundly human.