Vibe coding vs AI assisted/pair programming

[music] What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the channel. Today we are going to talk about vibe coding. Vibe coding, AI, software development. Just a few things that are on my mind lately considering I'm transferring into this career hopefully. Um, what brought this up was the fact that a week or so ago, maybe a little longer, maybe a little less, I don't remember. over time kind of blends together. Um, I watched this video uh by DT. The video is entitled Vibe Coding. It's the evolution of programming. Uh, the thumbnail obviously says that vibe coding should be embraced. Now, if you watched this video, great. Um, if you didn't, I recommend you go check it out. Not that I need to give DT a shout out because, you know, he's just a little YouTube channel out there when it comes to the Linux community. But, um, I just want to start by saying thank you for all you do in this Linux community, DT. um all the open- source software uh you plug the uh just your support for this whole this whole ecosystem and this whole this whole thing. So, thank you very much. I do appreciate it. You got me uh hooked on it. So, um you are kind of a big guy in that area. So, I appreciate it. Um but [snorts] we're going to talk a little bit about it today. Now, I'm going to start with the basics because I'm sure most of you know this, but if you don't, I just want to make sure we're on the same page here. [snorts] What is vibe coding? Now, vibe coding was a term coined by a guy, I hope I pronounced his name right. It's it's Andre, a n dre ej. Um, so Andre uh Cararpathy, Cararpathy, however you want to say it. Um, well, it shouldn't be, however you want to say it, however it's pronounced. Hopefully, I'm doing that justice. Um, and he's a developer that, um, [snorts] kind of coined this phrase. And I want to make sure we're on the same page here because you might not be what you think it is. Now um vibe coding is basically like giving into the vibes of coding. You uh have a AI tool of your choice. You decide what type of program or what type of type of script or what type of code you want to write. You punch in a prompt into your AI tool of choice and you let it spit the code out for you. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, there might be a few nuances that you aren't aware of on that. Now, you might be completely aware of this, but I just wanted to cover this because for a while, I was kind of um oblivious to this fact, but [snorts] we're going to kind of discuss some of DT's points. We're going to discuss some of my points um that I feel, and we're going to discuss vibe coding and AI coding in general. So, in DT's video, he talks about how it is considered AI slop. If you create something that is been used uh been had AI been used to make it um a video uh an image, some code, whatever else. It's just got this derogatory term that it is AI slop. Oh, that's just garbage. You used AI to create it. It wasn't created in the traditional sense. It wasn't uh created by a person. You just punched in a prompt and you had a machine create it for you. Now, where he's going with this is he's saying that he believes that this is something that is kind of the wave of the future. This is what's coming along. This is something we should embrace and this is something we should all use. Now, where I agree with DT on that is this is great for personal use. This is great for the novice who just wants to get something up and going on their system, something that they can use and that will help them in their daily workflow. Um, and just actually for fun, too. Um, I've sat down and create created numerous things just punching a prompt in and seeing what comes out. So, there's certain reasons that this would be used that are I don't want to say the term acceptable because you know what you do is your own business, but um that I find acceptable for me personally. Um, so like I said, it's great for the novice personal use user who wants to just make stuff on a system, maybe doesn't know a whole lot about coding, maybe doesn't know anything about coding, but they can actually articulate well what they want. And so they punch it into a prompt, their AI model spits out what they want, and then they they run with it. Um, where we see this as an issue or where I see this as an issue is what the actual meaning of vibe coding is compared to um AI assisted coding I guess would be a better term for it or paired programming I think is another term for it. Uh paired programming is usually to developers but [clears throat] the same type of uh workflow can be done with an AI model. Um, paired programming is where you have two people sit down, you go over the code together, you bounce ideas off each other, yada yada yada. Here's where I see DT uh, in his video, I [clears throat] don't want to say gets it wrong, but I think he goes down the road of more paired programming as opposed to vibe coding in his description of things. um he kind of describes it and I [sighs and gasps] I don't want to put words into his mouth because I obviously don't remember the word the video verbatim, but he talks about AI uh vibe coding as more like an architect who's trying to build a building without blueprints. He's just kind of sketching uh bouncing ideas off stuff. I want this to do this and I want this to do that. And you know, he shows his examples of some uh programs he created for his own system where he used vibe coding. Now the way he describes his process for creating the programs on his machine um sounds like vibe coding but his uh analogy or his illustration of the architect um doesn't quite match up I guess. So yes vibe coding is punching in a prompt and spitting it out and running with it. That is vibe coding. That is strictly it. There is no review of the code. There is no reading the code. There's no editing the code. It is you say, "I want X, Y, and Z. Your language model spits out some code. You copy and paste and run with it. You run that code. It does X and Y but not Z." You punch into the prompt again. Hey, the code does this but not this. And it spits out more code and you go from there. There's no editing the code. There's no reading the code. There is just basically you telling the computer or the model what you want, the model spitting out code, you running that code, you telling the model what works and what doesn't work. There is no actual editing of the code. There is actually no even reading of the code. If you actually look at his description, you don't even look at the code. You copy it, you paste it, you run it. Now, where a lot of people confuse AI coding and vibe coding is kind of what DT's description in the video is where, okay, we can take this code and we can bounce. Yes, he bounces the ideas back off of his language model and he changes the code within everything, but he makes the statement, I believe, where he says, um, it's like an architect sketching blueprints. We can always go back over it and refactor now. or if we want to just get something quick and dirty and then we can go back and change it. [snorts] Something along those lines. Well, while yes, that is kind of AI coding. That is more AI assisted programming or paired programming from the way I understand as he was talking about. And again, this is this video isn't a trash DTS video or anything like that. I just I'm just trying to I'm just spitting out my thoughts on this and what I think his video explained well and what I think he either was a little off base or maybe didn't explain quite I don't know. Again, I'm not trashing DT. I love his videos. I love his channel. This is just kind of I saw his video and this is what came to mind. So, the the illustration he uses for the architect and everything is more of an idea of AI assisted where you have it spit out some code, you can go over it and review it later and change things. That's that's not vibe coding. vibe coding is running with what it gives you and no editing, no nothing. That's that's it. And while you can change it via the LLM, there is no review of the code and everything. So overall, I agree with the idea that using AI is not a bad idea. And I agree with the idea that vibe coding on your personal machine as a novice or even as an experienced programmer is not a bad idea. Using stuff, using AI and vibe coding for your own system is great. I do it all the time. I have it write stuff for me. But if I was to create production level code that I knew hundreds of thousands if not millions of people were going to be using and I just pushed out what AI created for me. I just see some potentials for problems there. And I know DT brushed over these in this video as well. Malicious code uh and all that, but I think the security and the malicious code thing are a Excuse me [clears throat] one second. I think those are the biggest issues, but I think there's the other issues of dirty code. You know, he was talking about how dirty code doesn't matter if it's, you know, clean or whatever else or if it's it's organized, this and that, as long as it works. Well, when you get into the production level world, you got to understand that there's going to be other people looking at that code if it's if it's open source. And even if it's not open source, there's going to be other. And if somebody else gets in there and goes to change something or edit something or say you lose your job and somebody else has to go in and fix something, I know it doesn't matter to you because you don't work there anymore. But the person coming in behind you that has to go through and fix this stuff. It might be dirty, unorganized, horrible code that is just going to be a nightmare for somebody. So while that's not a major deal, that is a a downside I see to this. Um, I just see the safety and security issues and the um, fact that somebody else might have to look at this and understand what's going on with it. I see those as major downsides. Does that say does that mean I am against it vibe coding and it I don't think it should be used at all? No. But I think at this point right now, I don't think it is a good idea for production use. Um, now again, I could be way off on this. I'm not a professional at AI. I'm not a professional at coding. I'm not a professional at any of this. So, I could be way off and if I am, please feel free to correct me in the in the comments, but please do it constructively and and and politely. I don't need to be told I'm an idiot and all that. You know, I get told that enough on a daily basis as a technician. But, um, [snorts] just my my personal opinion, what I see is that. So, overall, again, I agree with AI that using AI does not make whatever you created slop. It is not a bad idea to use AI. It's not something that should be shamed if somebody does use AI. >> [snorts] >> I think it is a great tool. I'll put that in perspective. As a technician, I've been an automotive technician for almost 30 years. Um, I have used everything from hand tools to computers. When I first started, the majority of my job was completed using hand tools. I tear something down. Boy, excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> you know, diagnosing and tearing down a car was all done from here. There was very little documentation on things. We didn't have the online documentation that we have now. We didn't have the, you know, YouTube videos that people watch through their cars. Um, not me in my profession, but um, everything was done with very minimal tooling. It was hand tools and it was maybe a little scanner that would give you a a code or some data from a sensor or whatever else, but that was about it. Nowadays, I spend about 75% of my time on a laptop. I'm I'm hooked up to a car communicating with the ECMs because most of them have anywhere from 30 to 50 computers in them. I'm communicating with stuff. I'm reading data. I'm running active tests. I'm doing all this stuff via a computer. Now, if I tried to diagnose cars and repair cars nowadays with the tooling I had back when I started and only that tooling, I would I would starve to death. I wouldn't get anything done. This is the way I see AI. I think AI is a great tool. I think it is a great tool that can be utilized to help potentially, hear me when I say that, potentially increase your efficiency and your proficiency and potentially make you a better software developer, a better coder. Now, do I think it is guaranteed to do that? No, absolutely not. Just because somebody knows how to use a computer or how to use AI doesn't mean they're going to understand all the ins and outs of uh software development and what needs to be done to do this stuff. But I do believe it is a great tool when it is used correctly, when it is used where it should be used and it's not used for what it shouldn't be used for. Just like in my line of work, there's tools I can't use a a ratchet to uh you know uh hammer out a bolt. Well, I could, but it would break it. You know, there's just certain tools you don't use for certain things, and AI is no different. There it's a great tool, but there's certain things that you should use it for, certain things that you shouldn't use it for. Now, the one of the big downsides I see to using AI is, and I've seen it in my own personal life, it might not be for everybody, and this might not be an issue for everybody, but for me personally, I I do use AI. I use it all the time. I use it to help me do stuff that I just want to write quick and dirty a script to do this or do that or whatever. But what I've noticed is I'll go to do something, I'll be like, I've used AI to do this the past few times. I better write it myself this time. and I'll sit down to write it and it's like um how do I write that function? How did this work? Because as I use stuff, it stays up here. I retain it. I I can I can remember it. I can repeat it. I can do all this stuff. But as I start relying on something else to do that for me, my brain says, "Oh, I don't have to remember that anymore. Let's push that out and let's bring this in." So [snorts] now I have got this problem where okay the more I use AI the more I forget the stuff that I'm actually using AI to write for me. Now you might say well that's not a problem because you've got AI to write it for you. Yes and no. What happens if I sit down and I go to a job where they're like we do not allow AI. [clears throat] What happens if AI becomes illegal? what happens if you know there's there's there's a lot of variables that come into play and I don't want to have to rely on something else that I once knew here that I haven't put into use in so long that I I no longer remember how to do it. So, while I agree with using AI, I do also think that relying on it too heavily creates a void where you once knew something and now you don't have it. So all this long rambling video to say that vibe coding might not be what you think it is. Vibe coding is sitting down punching a prompt into AI running with that code and that code only and using AI to troubleshoot and debug. You're not looking at the code. You're not editing the code. You're not doing anything with the code itself. Your full interaction is with AI and AI is doing everything for you. AI assisted programming or paired programming, whatever you want to call it, is more where I fall and what I like. Vibe coding on your own machine, great. If you want to use it as a tool, AI assisted pair programming is completely acceptable. My opinion on the idea of using AI is creating slop. Absolutely not. I do not think that is the case. I think it is just another tool to use for coding. I think it's another medium to use for art. I think it's just another, you know, another [sighs and gasps] avenue for people to create. And while it can be used to create garbage, just like anything else, it also can be used to create some amazing stuff. So use it. Use it as it should be used. Use it in the environment correctly and make sure if you are using it, you're still sharpening those skills that you had in your head because relying on something else to do everything for you. Pretty soon we're going to be like the the people in Wall-E. You know, computers going to run everything and we're just going to be lazy. We're not going to know anything and it's just going to be horrible. So that's just kind of my take on the things right now. Um, it is not an expert's take by any means. It is just what I was thinking after I watched DT's video. I tried to put it together in at least a somewhat coherent video to explain to you guys um, what I was thinking. But [snorts] hopefully it came out okay and hopefully you guys understand what I'm saying. So, I hope you guys have a great rest of your day, a great rest of your week. Stay safe and God bless.

@DistroTube made a video that got me thinking, here are my thoughts on the matter, thans Derek! @DistroTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfs0A94_T4 FIND ME ON THE WEB Gitlab - https://gitlab.com/jped Github - https://github.com/jdpedersen1 Email Me At - jake@jpedmedia.com My Website - https://jpedmedia.com Follow Me On Odysee - https://odysee.com/$/invite/@Jakeatlinux:f SUPPORT THE CHANNEL patreon - https://www.patreon.com/JakeAtLinux buy me a coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jakeQg Brave users can support me with BAT on my website or on my youtube channel EXTRAS $100 to test a server through Vultr - https://www.vultr.com/?ref=9174735-8H #linux #bash #LinuxTutorials