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1. Scene_+V4[view] [source] 2025-05-19 16:47:11
>>net01+(OP)
I tried doing some vibe coding on a greenfield project (using gemini 2.5 pro + cline). On one hand - super impressive, a major productivity booster (even compared to using a non-integrated LLM chat interface).

I noticed that LLMs need a very heavy hand in guiding the architecture, otherwise they'll add architectural tech debt. One easy example is that I noticed them breaking abstractions (putting things where they don't belong). Unfortunately, there's not that much self-retrospection on these aspects if you ask about the quality of the code or if there are any better ways of doing it. Of course, if you pick up that something is in the wrong spot and prompt better, they'll pick up on it immediately.

I also ended up blowing through $15 of LLM tokens in a single evening. (Previously, as a heavy LLM user including coding tasks, I was averaging maybe $20 a month.)

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2. candid+v7[view] [source] 2025-05-19 16:58:59
>>Scene_+V4
> I also ended up blowing through $15 of LLM tokens in a single evening.

This is a feature, not a bug. LLMs are going to be the next "OMG my AWS bill" phenomenon.

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3. Scene_+E9[view] [source] 2025-05-19 17:09:37
>>candid+v7
Cline very visibly displays the ongoing cost of the task. Light edits are about 10 cents, and heavy stuff can run a couple of bucks. It's just that the tab accumulates faster than I expect.
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4. eterm+Lq[view] [source] 2025-05-19 18:29:29
>>Scene_+E9
> Light edits are about 10 cents

Some well-paid developers will excuse this with, "Well if it saved me 5 minutes, it's worth an order of magnitude than 10 cents".

Which is true, however there's a big caveat: Time saved isn't time gained.

You can "Save" 1,000 hours every night, but you don't actuall get those 1,000 hours back.

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5. shephe+qS[view] [source] 2025-05-19 21:00:55
>>eterm+Lq
> You can "Save" 1,000 hours every night, but you don't actuall get those 1,000 hours back.

What do you mean?

If I have some task that requires 1000 hours, and I'm able to shave it down to one hour, then I did just "save" 999 hours -- just in the same way that if something costs $5 and I pay $4, I saved $

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6. eterm+T41[view] [source] 2025-05-19 22:21:43
>>shephe+qS
My point is that saving 1,000 hours each day doesn't actually give you 1,000 hours a day to do things with.

You still get your 24 hours, no matter how much time you save.

What actually matters is the value of what is delivered, not how much time it actually saves you. Justifying costs by "time saved" is a good way to eat up your money on time-saving devices.

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7. lepton+kf1[view] [source] 2025-05-19 23:46:25
>>eterm+T41
If I "save 1000 hours" then that could be distributed over 41.666 days, so no task would need to be performed during that period because "I saved 1000 hours".

You could also say you saved 41.666 people an entire 24 hour day, by "saving 1000 hours", or some other fractional way.

How you're trying to explain it as "saving 1000 hours each day" is really not making any sense without further context.

And I'm sure if I hadn't written this comment I would be saving 1000 hours on a stupid comment thread.

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8. jappga+yi2[view] [source] 2025-05-20 11:25:22
>>lepton+kf1
You're overthinking it.

It's like this coupon booklets they used to sell. "Over $10,000 of savings!"

Yes but how much money do I have to spend in order to save $10,000?

There was this funny commercial in the 90s for some muffler repair chain that was having a promotion: "Save Fifty Dollars..."

The theme was "What will you do with the fifty dollars you saved?" And it was people going to Disneyland or afancy dinner date.

The people (actors) believed they were receiving $50. They acted as if it was free money. Meanwhile there was zero talk about whether their cars needed muffler repair at all.

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9. lesuor+FH2[view] [source] 2025-05-20 14:02:44
>>jappga+yi2
> Meanwhile there was zero talk about whether their cars needed muffler repair at all.

It's called "Thinking past the sale". It's a common sales tactic.

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