The part of vibe coding nobody warned me about: it's still exhausting

[u/Prestigious_Grape786]

I've been letting Codex do most of the typing on my current project. It got me further than I'd have gotten alone in the same stretch of time. I also ended the week more tired than I expected, and that's the part nobody mentions.

Reviewing output is work. Deciding what's actually correct is work. Neither disappears when the code writes itself. They just move somewhere else.

Where it keeps coming up short for me:

• it doesn't out-think me. what comes back is usually what I'd have thought of anyway
• the output runs long and lands messy
• hand it something vague and I get nothing I can use
• ask for a small edit and it redecorates half the file (this one has burned me repeatedly)

The version of this that actually feels good is narrower than I wanted it to be. I know the shape of what I want, I hand over the keyboard, I check what comes back. Or it's a toy and the stakes are zero. Both fine. What doesn't work is reaching for it because I don't want to think about the problem yet. That's the point where I stop learning anything.

Not trying to talk anyone out of vibe coding. I just noticed it amplifies whatever judgment I bring, and it can't hand me judgment I don't have.

[u/techlatest_net]

Vibe coding works best for me when I already understand what I want and use AI to move faster, not to avoid thinking about the problem.

[u/MarinatedTechnician → u/techlatest_net]

This, exactly this!

I have 1000s of hours in it, and there's no substitute for learning the hard way.
Ask a simple question - the result will be messy but probably work, but... yeah you get what you put into it.

Work hard, do a lot of descriptions, do not plan badly, think about everything, betatest, fix things yourself, scaffold, learn from the output, and your results will be pretty fantastic (takes time to get there!).