Hello programmers! I’ve been making a living for a couple of decades figuring out stuff for people and coding whatever will make them happy. It’s fun. I’ve grown to prefer the people to the coding but I still get a kick out of the whole thing.
The problem is: at the job we’re being asked to pivot to vibe coding. At this point the order is to use it for all code, read the slop carefully, argue with the machine for way too long and only then open that PR. Massive productivity gains are expected. I’m appalled from an ethical, philosophical and professional standpoint. We’re a non-profit ngo ffs. My colleagues are fine with it. If I get even slightly critical the group goes awkwardly silent and I get comments on how all the programmers they know from other places don’t code anymore.
If this is how it goes from now on, I’m out. Is it really though? Are all businesses switching to vibe coding? Have some of you started switching career? I think I want to go to meatspace. Hand-made coding could make a cute hobby.
All of those data centers, chips, and the power and water needed to run them cost money. They need to make revenue to cover that cost. Where is that revenue going to come from? It’s going to come from their customers.
Just the electricity costs alone on the number of data centers they’re talking about building is going to be expensive. To make a 5% return on a trillion dollar investment they need to make 50 billion in profit. That’s above the costs of the electricity, water, and replacing the chips, and they do need to cover the initial fixed costs of building those data centers.
They’re currently losing money hand over fist, and that’s with them cooking the books on the depreciation of the chips. The investors aren’t going to subsidize the costs forever, eventually when they start demanding a return on their investment, we enter the enshittification phase. How are they going to balance their budgets without raising the price?