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Yes, I'm getting increasingly confused as to why some people are broadening the use of "vibe" coding to just mean any AI coding, no matter how thorough/thoughtf

Yes, I'm getting increasingly confused as to why some people are broadening the use of "vibe" coding to just mean any AI coding, no matter how thorough/thoughtful.

loloquwowndueo 11mo ago
Like people using “bricked” to signal recoverable situations. “Oh the latest update bricked my phone and I had to factory-reset it, but it’s ok now”. Bricked used to mean it turned into something as useful as a brick, permanently.
- namrog84 11mo ago
  I've also seen the term. You've been permanently banned for 12 hours. Instead of temporarily suspended. Whatever happened to the word suspended for temporary and ban for permanent and places say permanent with an expiration date.
  - nancyminusone 11mo ago
    My favorite one of these is "electrocuted" meaning "to be killed by electricity". Nobody alive has ever been electrocuted, but you will meet people who claim to have been.
    - stronglikedan 11mo ago
      The modern definition includes "injured", so plenty of living people have been electrocuted.
- viccis 11mo ago
  I'm not sure how common this is in other countries, but Americans would rather add another definition to the dictionary for the misuse before they'd ever tolerate being corrected or (god forbid) learning the real meaning of a word. I got dogpiled for saying this about "factoid" the other day here, but sometimes when people misuse words like "bricked" or "electrocuted", the ambiguity does actually make a difference, meaning you have to follow up with "actually bricked permanently?" or "did the shock kill him?", meaning that semantic information has been lost.
  - habinero 11mo ago
    Languages evolve, my dude. It's common everywhere.
    - kelipso 11mo ago
      I think he is complaining about that exact philosophy maybe being applied too broadly lol.
crazygringo 11mo ago
It's because the term itself got overapplied by people critical of LLMs -- they dismissed all LLM-assisted coding as "vibe coding" because they were prejudiced against LLMs. Then lots of people were introduced to the term "vibe coding" in these conversations, and so naturally took it as a synonym for using LLMs for coding assistance even when reading the code and writing tests and such. Also because vibe coding just sounds cool.
- habinero 11mo ago
  I mean, that's the joke. "vibe coding" only sounds cool if you don't know how to code but horrific if you do.
  - crazygringo 11mo ago
    Right but there are tons of examples of things that started out as insults or negative only to be claimed as the proper or positive name. Impressionism in painting, for a start. The Quakers. Queer. Punk. Even "hacker", which started out meaning only breaking into computer systems -- and now we have "Hacker News." So vibe coding fits in perfectly. In other words, everyone's in on the joke.
    - stonemetal12 11mo ago
      > Even "hacker", which started out meaning only breaking into computer systems No. The Etymology of Hacker in the technical scene started at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club in the late 1950s/early 1960s, "hack" described clever, intricate solutions, pranks, or experiments with technology. A hacker is one who made those clever solutions, pranks, and technology experiments. "Hacker News" is trying to take it back from criminal activity.
      - crazygringo 11mo ago
        TIL, thanks! Growing up I was only aware of the criminal version -- I didn't realize it grew out of an earlier meaning. I just saw the shift in the tech scene in the 1990s and more broader culturally in the 2000s with "life hacks" and hackathons. What's old is new again...
iLoveOncall 11mo ago
Words don't have meaning in 2025. A negative but courteous remark is "slamming", a tweet is an "attack", etc. So yeah I'm not surprised that people conflate any use of AI with vibe-coding.
- lukan 11mo ago
  Words changed meaning all the time through history, it just happens faster.
  - pferde 11mo ago
    The two examples the grandparent post mentioned are not really evolution, but rather making everything sound bombastic and sensationalist. The end game for that trend is the cigarette brand ad billboard in Idiocracy, where a half-naked muscular man glares at you angrily and going "If you do not smoke our brand, f* you!" Sounds more like de-volution to me.
  - zahlman 11mo ago
    There is a world of difference between natural semantic drift and blatant disregard for accuracy by someone seeking to create drama for attention. Not to mention all the attempts we see nowadays at deliberate redefinition of words, or the motte-and-bailey games played with jargon vs. lay understandings of a concept.
    - lukan 11mo ago
      "seeking to create drama for attention" I do not think that is a new thing in human history, too. But sure, the internet amplified it a lot.
  - devnullbrain 11mo ago
    Yes but before 2005 we didn't have Reddit, so we didn't have people who learned about prescriptivism from there and think it means all discussion about taste and style is immoral.

Yes, I'm getting increasingly confused as to why some people are broadening the use of "vibe" coding to just mean any AI coding, no matter how thorough/thoughtful.

loloquwowndueo 11mo ago

Like people using “bricked” to signal recoverable situations. “Oh the latest update bricked my phone and I had to factory-reset it, but it’s ok now”. Bricked used to mean it turned into something as useful as a brick, permanently.

namrog84 11mo ago
I've also seen the term. You've been permanently banned for 12 hours. Instead of temporarily suspended. Whatever happened to the word suspended for temporary and ban for permanent and places say permanent with an expiration date.
- nancyminusone 11mo ago
  My favorite one of these is "electrocuted" meaning "to be killed by electricity". Nobody alive has ever been electrocuted, but you will meet people who claim to have been.
  - stronglikedan 11mo ago
    The modern definition includes "injured", so plenty of living people have been electrocuted.
viccis 11mo ago
I'm not sure how common this is in other countries, but Americans would rather add another definition to the dictionary for the misuse before they'd ever tolerate being corrected or (god forbid) learning the real meaning of a word. I got dogpiled for saying this about "factoid" the other day here, but sometimes when people misuse words like "bricked" or "electrocuted", the ambiguity does actually make a difference, meaning you have to follow up with "actually bricked permanently?" or "did the shock kill him?", meaning that semantic information has been lost.
- habinero 11mo ago
  Languages evolve, my dude. It's common everywhere.
  - kelipso 11mo ago
    I think he is complaining about that exact philosophy maybe being applied too broadly lol.

crazygringo 11mo ago

It's because the term itself got overapplied by people critical of LLMs -- they dismissed all LLM-assisted coding as "vibe coding" because they were prejudiced against LLMs. Then lots of people were introduced to the term "vibe coding" in these conversations, and so naturally took it as a synonym for using LLMs for coding assistance even when reading the code and writing tests and such. Also because vibe coding just sounds cool.

habinero 11mo ago
I mean, that's the joke. "vibe coding" only sounds cool if you don't know how to code but horrific if you do.
- crazygringo 11mo ago
  Right but there are tons of examples of things that started out as insults or negative only to be claimed as the proper or positive name. Impressionism in painting, for a start. The Quakers. Queer. Punk. Even "hacker", which started out meaning only breaking into computer systems -- and now we have "Hacker News." So vibe coding fits in perfectly. In other words, everyone's in on the joke.
  - stonemetal12 11mo ago
    > Even "hacker", which started out meaning only breaking into computer systems No. The Etymology of Hacker in the technical scene started at MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club in the late 1950s/early 1960s, "hack" described clever, intricate solutions, pranks, or experiments with technology. A hacker is one who made those clever solutions, pranks, and technology experiments. "Hacker News" is trying to take it back from criminal activity.
    - crazygringo 11mo ago
      TIL, thanks! Growing up I was only aware of the criminal version -- I didn't realize it grew out of an earlier meaning. I just saw the shift in the tech scene in the 1990s and more broader culturally in the 2000s with "life hacks" and hackathons. What's old is new again...

iLoveOncall 11mo ago

Words don't have meaning in 2025. A negative but courteous remark is "slamming", a tweet is an "attack", etc. So yeah I'm not surprised that people conflate any use of AI with vibe-coding.

lukan 11mo ago
Words changed meaning all the time through history, it just happens faster.
- pferde 11mo ago
  The two examples the grandparent post mentioned are not really evolution, but rather making everything sound bombastic and sensationalist. The end game for that trend is the cigarette brand ad billboard in Idiocracy, where a half-naked muscular man glares at you angrily and going "If you do not smoke our brand, f* you!" Sounds more like de-volution to me.
- zahlman 11mo ago
  There is a world of difference between natural semantic drift and blatant disregard for accuracy by someone seeking to create drama for attention. Not to mention all the attempts we see nowadays at deliberate redefinition of words, or the motte-and-bailey games played with jargon vs. lay understandings of a concept.
  - lukan 11mo ago
    "seeking to create drama for attention" I do not think that is a new thing in human history, too. But sure, the internet amplified it a lot.
- devnullbrain 11mo ago
  Yes but before 2005 we didn't have Reddit, so we didn't have people who learned about prescriptivism from there and think it means all discussion about taste and style is immoral.