I'm going back to writing code by hand

Re:I'm going back to writing code by hand by viceconsole on Monday May 11, 2026 @12:22AM (#48091033)

> Vibe-coding makes you feel like you have infinite implementation budget. You don't. You have infinite LINE budget (the AI will generate as much code as you want). But you have the same finite complexity budget as always.

This is a special case of a general fundamental point I'm struggling with.

Let's assume AI has reduced the marginal cost of code to zero. So our supply of code is now infinite.

Meanwhile, other critical factors continue to be finite: time in a day, attention, interest, goodwill, paying customers, money, energy.

So how do you choose what to build?

Like a genie, the tools give us the power to ask for whatever we want. And like a genie, it turns out we often don't really know what we want.

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Re:I'm going back to writing code by hand by TranquilMarmot on Monday May 11, 2026 @02:06AM (#48091522)

Right - knowing what to actually build always has been and always will be the limiting factor to actual success. I could spend months and hundreds of dollars generating the absolute BEST todo list that's out there but nobody wants that.

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Re:I'm going back to writing code by hand by ozim on Monday May 11, 2026 @02:21AM (#48091621)

I have vibe coded 3 applications I never had time to code but always wanted.

Now it is different in a way where now I don’t have time to use those apps.

That’s a joke.

But I do believe it answers the question of “what to build?”. If you didn’t have time before LLM assisted coding you still don’t have time for it. You most likely know what is used and what not already by heart or by some measurements.

[ Parent | on HN ]