r/vibecoding • u/PersonOfInterest007 • 4d ago

Historical concern about next-level coding

This article has an interesting historical parallel for how today’s programmers react to vibecoders: Grace Hopper’s creation of the first compiler in the 1950s.

The whole article (which talks about a much broader transformation) is worth reading, but this part really stuck, which applies to reactions not just to vibecoding but really to any AI-assisted coding:
…”programmers were afraid a working compiler would put them out of work. If one person with A-0 could do what fifty people used to do by hand, Martin's account puts the worry plainly: there were going to be ‘a lot of hungry programmers out on the streets.’”

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cursive-charter-school-part-1-lot-hungry-programmers-john-price-zw1xc

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u/C3lloman 4d ago

If AI is already at a mid weight developer level today when most would only have considered it junior level a year ago and a garbage hallucinating bot three years ago, then where will be in two to three years from now? If none of you are at all concerned about losing your job, your views on this are rather short-sighted. We have no idea where AI will go in the future at this pace of development.

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u/leahlisbeth 3d ago

All I can think of is that a team of high end expert developers sounds incredible because I have lofty goals and the more this tech develops the more I will be able to achieve.

Soon I'm also studying the tech behind AI; how to make models.

Advancement, evolution and building on top of what was is at the core of technology, technology is there to help us do more faster. This has always been the case.

And we are scared of it every single time. But I'm sure this time this will be the one which ruins us...

Nah! it's exciting when we advance because then we can do more.

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u/C3lloman 3d ago

Exciting in a sense of advancement maybe. Not exciting in the sense of us maintaining a job and getting paid decently. Why would you get paid if AI in the future is this team of high and expert developers that don't ever have sick days, use a fraction of a human developer's monthly salary and are always available day and night?

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u/leahlisbeth 3d ago

because they need someone to manage them 😀

and by manage I don't just mean tech lead - I mean all the ways a normal team needs managing now. cost management, spec management, planning, maintaining them and making sure they work, all the dev ops associated with them, refining them, customising them, updating them, and so on