Remix.run Logo
mrtesthah 12 hours ago

I wrote this a day ago but I find it even more relevant to your observation:

I would never use, let alone pay for, a fully vibe-coded app whose implementation no human understands.

Whether you’re reading a book or using an app, you’re communicating with the author by way of your shared humanity in how they anticipate what you’re thinking as you explore the work. The author incorporates and plans for those predicted reactions and thoughts where it makes sense. Ultimately the author is conveying an implicit mental model (or even evoking emotional states or sensations) to the reader.

The first problem is that many of these pathways and edge cases aren’t apparent until the actual implementation, and sometimes in the process the author realizes that the overall product would work better if it were re-specified from the start. This opportunity is lost without a hands on approach.

The second problem is that, the less human touch is there, the less consistent the mental model conveyed to the user is going to be, because a specification and collection of prompts does not constitute a mental model. This can create subconscious confusion and cognitive friction when interacting with the work.

charcircuit 6 hours ago | parent [-]

No human understands how Windows works. The number of products where a human understands the whole thing is small.

mrtesthah 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That's a false analogy. Product managers, designers, API implementers, kernel developers, etc. all understand what they're building and how that fits into a larger picture.

charcircuit an hour ago | parent [-]

They may know the area they are responsible for, but they don't know all of the details of everything else and just have to trust that other people are doing the right thing and following contracts correctly. It doesn't require anyone to have full global understanding. Having local experts is good enough.