This is the kind of thing that comes to mind every time I read about vibe coding. I work on systems that are generally considered critical, there's no way we'd use vibe coding to develop and maintain them. When our systems go wrong, people can die, and very expensive infrastructure can fail (and would cost billions to repair/replace).
I always wonder what kind of things people would want to use vibe coding for because there's no way it could be for anything serious, I'd hope.
some responsible yet still "serious" uses would include:
1) throwaway code where the "work product" is not a software system, but rather the outputs of the code which you can verify yourself.
the classic example for me is producing plots. I can easily verify that data is loaded correctly, and that the end result is correct, I just don't want to learn the complex API to make all the ticks and colors and fonts look perfect.
2) prototypes, mockups
3) simple tools (often with a web interface) for your own use
Any time I have taken shortcuts because "it's just a prototype" I have always come to regret it later. This may not be the "serious" use that it initially feels like.
Only there exist no prototypes, in the sense of throwaway. Prototypes become the product, as rarely something is really build up again from the ground to account for best setup.
I agree this is true (for mainly political/interpersonal reasons) if you’re writing code inside a typical software engineering organization, which orients itself to producing software products.
But lots of people write computer programs outside such contexts. Then it’s perfectly possible to prototype something and actually rewrite the full version.
For every critical system out there, there are thousands of trivial ones. The vast, vast majority of programmers aren't writing code for fighter jets, spacecraft, surgery robots, pacemakers, and what have you.
Honestly, I don't even want a pacemaker "engineered" by standard pre-"vibe" software engineering practices as I've seen them in the real world.
The worst outcome of all of this stuff could be that instead of dealing with exploding complexity and coming around to best practices that reduce it, we'll just let complexity and resulting confusion multiply because "the machines" will be the ones "thinking" about it, and not us.
I always wonder what kind of things people would want to use vibe coding for because there's no way it could be for anything serious, I'd hope.