We collectively have to re-learn what operations are expensive and what are cheap.

Prototypes are practically free now. You can ask the AI try each architectural or stylistic option and just see which code you like better.

To your point, another interesting note is that rewriting and rearchitecting are also very good.

One pattern I like is to vibe code a set of solutions, pick the approach, then backfill tests and do major refactors to make it maintainable.

Here the skill is knowing what good architecture looks like, and knowing how to prompt and validate (eg what level of tests will speed up the feedback cycle or enable me to make the LLM’s changes legible).

To be fair the “ready, fire, aim” approach of rapid prototyping has been known for a long time, but you need to be quite quick at coding in old world for it to work well IMO.

Free? Lol