> They're an interesting phenomen that people have convinced themselves MUST BE USEFUL in the context of software development,

Reading these comments during this period of history is interesting because a lot of us actually have found ways to make them useful, acknowledging that they’re not perfect.

It’s surreal to read claims from people who insist we’re just deluding ourselves, despite seeing the results

Yeah they’re not perfect and they’re not AGI writing the code for us. In my opinion they’re most useful in the hands of experienced developers, not juniors or PMs vibecoding. But claiming we’re all just delusional about their utility is strange to see.

It's absolutely possible to be mistaken about this. The placebo effect is very strong. I'm sure there are countless things in my own workflow that feel like a huge boon to me while being a wash at best in reality. The classic keyboard vs. mouse study comes to mind: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2657135

This is why it's so important to have data. So far I have not seen any evidence of a 'Cambrian explosion' or 'industrial revolution' in software.

> It’s surreal to read claims from people who insist we’re just deluding ourselves, despite seeing the results

just imagine how the skeptics feel :p