zlacker

>>laurex+(OP)
This article captures a lot of the problem. It’s often frustrating how it tries to work around really simple issues with complex workarounds that don’t work at all. I tell it the secret simple thing it’s missing and it gets it. It always makes me think, god help the vibe coders that can’t read code. I actually feel bad for them.

>>tippyt+L5
Working as an instructor for a project course for first-year university students, I have run in to this a couple of times. The code required for the project is pretty simple, but there are a couple of subtle details that can go wrong. Had one group today with bit shifts and other "advanced" operators everywhere, but the code was not working as expected. I asked them to just `Serial.println()` so they could check what was going on, and they were stumped. LLMs are already great tools, but if you don't know basic troubleshooting/debugging you're in for a bad time when the brick wall arrives.

On the other hand, it shows how much coding is just repetition. You don't need to be a good coder to perform serviceable work, but you won't create anything new and amazing either, if you don't learn to think and reason - but that might for some purposes be fine. (Worrying for the ability of the general population however)

You could ask whether these students would have gotten anything done without generated code? Probably, it's just a momentarily easier alternative to actual understanding. They did however realise the problem and decided by themselves to write their own code in a simpler, more repetitive and "stupid" style, but one that they could reason about. So hopefully a good lesson and all well in the end!