MOne software engineer on a team of vibe coders, and they're making fun of him for actually reading the repo.
CFor doing his job. That's the part that gets me. Somebody finally looks at the actual codebase and gets mocked for it.
MThe future of software, apparently.
CLook, I've used Claude Code. I love that it can get a junior dev going in an afternoon. But you still have to review what it writes.
MAnd that's exactly the problem. Ben Dickson posted the story on X. According to his post, he saw a product team bring in near-zero-experience people who only used Claude Code and never looked at the repo.
CWait, "near-zero experience" and no repo review? That's not a team, that's a liability.
MAccording to the post, there was one actual software engineer, and the vibe coders were regularly making fun of him.
CFor being slow, I'm guessing. Because reading code takes time.
MAs if shipping broken features fast is the win.
CIt can be, until something breaks. Then suddenly the guy who reads the code is everyone's best friend.
MBut here's my question: how did management let this happen? You don't let people with near-zero experience push code without a real engineer reviewing. That's not new.
CNo, no, wait. The new part is that AI makes it easy to fake competence. Before Claude Code, a near-zero-experience person couldn't even produce a pull request. Now they can.
MAnd that's bad? You'd rather they not build anything?
CI'd rather they not build the wrong thing in production with no tests and no idea what the code does.
MSo train them! Pair them with the engineer. Don't write off the tool because one team used it badly.
CI'm not writing off the tool. I'm saying vibe coding as a team strategy is a disaster. The engineer who reads the code is the only adult in the room.
MFine. But I'll bet that same engineer could use Claude Code to move ten times faster than he did alone. The answer isn't no AI, it's no AI without review.
CAlright, that's fair. Pair the robot with a human who knows what he's looking at.
MNobody's arguing that. Well, apparently the vibe coders were.
CThat they were.
MBut this is the bigger question: will companies start looking at AI coding tools and decide they don't need to hire juniors at all?
CI think the reverse. Juniors who learn to use these tools well will be more valuable, not less. The ones who just vibe and ship without understanding become a risk.
MBut if a manager sees a near-zero-experience person shipping features with Claude Code, why would they pay for a real engineer?
CBecause someone has to fix it when it breaks. That's the part they always forget.
MDevOps will always have a job.
CExactly. The people who read the code, write the tests, understand the systems— they'll be the ones cleaning up after the vibe wave.
MSo the mockery is temporary. Eventually the bill comes due.
CIt always does.
CDifferent world entirely: Suraj Sharma posted on X about Matt Pocock's "Skills for Real Engineers" repo. He says, and I quote, "three hundred thousand GitHub stars. Nearly thirty million installs."
MThree hundred thousand stars? That's a serious repo.
CIt's a collection of small slash-command skills for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot. Basically snippets that tell an AI coding agent how to do a specific thing well.
MSo it's a playbook of prompts. I can see why developers would grab it.
CMatt Pocock is the TypeScript guy— Total TypeScript. He knows his stuff. One engineer's personal skills becoming that popular is wild.
MHold on. "Most-used playbook" is doing a lot of work. And the thirty million installs? I checked. That number isn't supported. One skill in there reported about one point four million installs. The rest, no.
CYou're telling me the tweet exaggerated?
MI'm telling you the stars are real, but the install count is not. Calling it the most-used playbook is a judgment call, not a fact.
CFair. But even with the correction, three hundred thousand stars is a signal. A personal repo becoming that popular means something.
MIt tells you developers are desperate for reliable ways to steer these agents. Small, repeatable prompts beat one giant prompt every time.
CAnd that's exactly what Pocock built. Little skills you can mix and match. That's the right instinct.
MI'd just like the internet to stop adding "nearly thirty million installs" when it's one skill at one point four million.
CYou'd like the internet to stop exaggerating about AI? Good luck.
MI contain multitudes.
CBut seriously, the repo is worth a look if you're using these agents. Just don't call it thirty million installs.
MDeal. We'll call it three hundred thousand stars and a whole lot of potential.
CAnd a warning label for vibe coders.