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0 pointsElProlactin28d ago0 comments

I believe that anyone who has actually worked in this industry for any length of time and is being honest will acknowledge the fact that a lot of human-produced websites/web applications are mediocre at best.

The idea that every website or web app was being built by skilled artisans dedicated to the finer arts of their craft before AI is not realistic. AI didn't create spaghetti code, for example.

A lot of AI work product leaves a lot to be desired, but the realistic comparison is not to the best of what existed prior. Frankly, a lot of vibe coded apps are more functional and usable than web apps I've seen built by cheap outsourcing firms based offshore.

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paulhebert28d ago· 2 in thread

The big change I've seen is that before if you knew what you were doing you had two options:

- Make something crappy fairly quickly

- Make something good a little slower

AI has introduced a third option:

- Make something really crappy at light speed

A lot of companies are very excited about this and it makes it hard to advocate for "make something good a little slower" (even though AI can help speed that up.)

It feels like a race to the bottom. Companies were already prioritizing speed over quality. With AI a lot of them are doubling down.

ElProlactinOP28d ago

Except that AI also allows people to make something half-decent at light speed.

Yes, the average vibe coded app might not scale to millions of users, might not be perfectly secure, etc. but let's be honest: the freelance web developer you would have paid $25,000 to build your app a decade ago was in most cases not going to deliver a highly-scalable, highly-secure product either.

AI can allow companies to prioritize speed over quality, but it has also enabled lots of small businesses and entrepreneurs to actually build things that they wouldn't have if they had to pay a developer $xxx/hour.

paulhebert28d ago

Yeah that’s fair

It still makes it a tougher sell to deliver high quality more slowly

Side note: when it comes to front end I’m thinking less about scalability and security (though they apply) and more about performance, accessibility, reaponsiveness, quality UI, maintainability, basic design sense, etc.

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