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Bend 2 and the Vibe-Coding Trap

327 points · 235 comments · LiamPowell

  1. pu_pe · · focus · HN ↗
    The original discussion about the project (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49746163">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49746163) is very weird. Lots of call-outs about how the author is some sort of celebrity and random accounts vouching for him, with little discussion on the substance.

    Not even the demo on that release works well.

    1. stschaef · · focus · HN ↗
      I posted a sharp critique in the original discussion, aiming to be civil while critiquing the project. I may have been a bit terse, and would probably rephrase some of it now to avoid confusion, but I don&#x27;t think I was ever outwardly disrespectful.

      I received several very emotionally charged responses centered in the personal credentials of the author. They felt very out of place and did not engage substantively with any of the things I said. It was indeed very weird

      The author, who I hadn&#x27;t heard of before yesterday, actually seems like a cool dude. He was quite responsive, normal, and engaged with my feedback, which makes other random accounts being offended on his behalf all the more uncanny

      1. Gracana · · focus · HN ↗
        I think people responded that way because you strongly implied he was an unserious vibecoder who was just fooling around, and you called him suspicious as fuck.

        Your post and the ones that followed are a good example of the contrarian dynamic that dang often talks about. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;query=%22contrarian%20dynamic%22&amp;sort=byDate&amp;type=comment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;que...

        1. SkyBelow · · focus · HN ↗
          &gt;who was just fooling around

          In my own professional life, I&#x27;ve found this to be a very divisive statement. For some, it is a sign of wasting time and effort. For others, they use this to describe themselves when they want to do exploration for the goal of finding improvements, without any clear goal because they have a few ideas but none worth putting forward. I&#x27;ve been told to spend time learning AI and have found that saying &quot;Yeah, I&#x27;m playing around with it.&quot; was the wrong thing to say because it was seen as not doing anything worthwhile. It doesn&#x27;t matter that I would also say the majority of my tech skills were developed when I was &quot;playing around&quot;.

          I wonder if this is purely a linguistics breakdown, or if this is tied to some deeper difference in a person&#x27;s relationship to tech?

          1. antonvs · · focus · HN ↗
            Yes, I think it can be a sign of a very deep difference. When they say &quot;spend time learning AI,&quot; they mean work through some teaching materials to learn how to replicate what others are doing. This often doesn&#x27;t result in a deep understanding, but it can be enough to allow them to do their job.

            Ironically, people with this mindset will sometimes ask people who they recognize as having strong skills to share their magic secret, which is assumed to be some books they read, videos they watched, courses they attended, etc. If you tell them that experimenting, playing around, etc. is a key element, they may assume you&#x27;re just selfishly hoarding your fount of knowledge.

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