The Smell of Vibe Coding  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source]] - Full Title: The Smell of Vibe Coding - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/836ba116-0b72-4456-9898-050bd1c48eb3 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Identifying Vibe Coding** - Alex Kondov identifies "vibe coding" by spotting inconsistent or redundant coding practices. - Caring about code quality and consistency avoids maintainability issues introduced by unreliable coding methods. Transcript: Jerod Santo Coding. Alex Kondov knows when you've been vibe coding. He can smell it. Quote, no one would write an HTTP fetching implementation covering all edge cases when we have a data fetching library in the project that already does that. No one would implement a bunch of utility functions that we already have in a different module. No one would change a global configuration when there's a mechanism to do it on a module level. No one would write a class when we're using a functional approach everywhere. End quote. See, he's on to you. Ultimately, Alex doesn't care about how the code got into your IDE. He just wants you to care. To care about quality, to care about consistency, to care about the long-term effects of your work. And if you care, quote, don't leave a code base's maintainability to the weights of a model. ([Time 0:00:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/18ce0c48-2f41-4e90-a678-e331845fb474)) - **Care for Code Quality** - Care deeply about your code's quality, consistency, and long-term impact. - Avoid leaving codebase maintainability up to automated models or shortcuts. Transcript: Jerod Santo He just wants you to care. To care about quality, to care about consistency, to care about the long-term effects of your work. And if you care, quote, don't leave a code base's maintainability to the weights of a model. A ([Time 0:01:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/45efcaf1-bed8-4f05-80f7-4be385919f83)) - **Tea App Leak Cause** - The Tea app data leak was due to negligence and inexperience rather than vibe coding. - The app openly published sensitive data, highlighting poor development oversight. Transcript: Jerod Santo Data got leaked. Jen Kamerath disassembled the Android app's binary and concludes, not so. Quote, My assumptions after this initial forensic analysis is that this app was built by a single, inexperienced developer or by a team dictated by a single, developer. The app was likely not vibe coded as none of the models of the past months would have made such obvious mistakes. End quote. Ouch. In other words, vibe coding would have produced better results. Quote, this hack should have never happened. The T app is an AI slop. It's gross negligence from a likely single developer with very little experience that should not have been allowed to publish such an application without supervision. The app didn't get hacked. It willingly published sensitive, ([Time 0:02:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/95a77143-5006-4253-913b-67b497cc2f5b)) - **LLM API Price Insight** - PricePerToken website helps track cost differences among major LLM APIs. - Future AI tools will likely use smart routing to optimize cost and quality dynamically. Transcript: Jerod Santo Is your LLM spending budget on the rise? If so, Alex Ellman has just the website for you. Price per token provides up-to pricing info for major LLM APIs, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more. It pulls data from OpenRouter.ai and even lets you estimate the cost of executing the same prompt across different models. Plus, they just added image generation comparisons. In the future, I assume every AI tool will have a smart routing layer up front that dissects our prompts, determines the sweet spot provider of just enough quality at the cheapest possible Price, and dynamically routes it on our behalf. In the meantime, tools like this one from Alex could ([Time 0:03:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ec18ebe7-ca94-4fb2-8c5e-745ca83d9446)) - **Use Ramblings Channels** - Create a personal "ramblings" channel for each teammate in your chat app. - Use it as a low-pressure space for sharing thoughts and generating ideas without cluttering group chats. Transcript: Jerod Santo 10 people like his. Quote, create a personal ramblings channel for each teammate in your team's chat app of choice. Ramblings channels let everyone share what's on their mind without cluttering group channels. Think of them as personal journals or microblogs inside your team's chat app, a lightweight way to add ambient social cohesion. End quote. These channels should be at the bottom of the list, muted by default, with no expectation that anybody ever reads them. The Obsidian team has found them surprisingly sticky, quote, because they are so free and loose, some of our best ideas emerge from ramblings. They are often the source of feature ideas, small prototypes, and creative solutions to long-standing problems. That is ([Time 0:04:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/75c2c26f-082b-4b11-98ef-c2d06e43c1b3))