Vibe coding brings back the software black box with a vengeance

Throughout software development history, we have kept trying to hide complexity behind black boxes. JavaScript frameworks abstracted away how browsers render pages. WYSIWYG editors promised early on that you would never have to touch HTML. Layer after layer of abstractions was put in place to hide what is actually happening underneath. Each time, the promise is the same: you don't need to understand what's below.

I've worked on numerous projects using these technologies. They cover 80% of what you need, but the moment you go beyond the happy path, things fall apart. Workaround upon workaround is needed to make it behave the way you want. When it breaks, it is hard to debug. You end up fighting the abstraction instead of solving the actual problem.

I never liked these black boxes. The frameworks I was most productive with were those that allowed me to intervene at every stage. AI-powered development tools bring the black box back with a vengeance. They generate entire applications from prompts, the ultimate black box. You don't have to understand the code if you don't want to. But when something goes wrong, you are back to needing a developer to untangle what the AI produced. The good thing is that you can open this black box. The bad thing is that what you find inside is often a big ball of spaghetti code.

There are plenty of Reddit posts from desperate founders who need help with their vibe-coded app. It is becoming increasingly clear that security is a major flaw in generated applications. The lesson is not to hold back on vibe coding. It can help you get a prototype out amazingly fast. But plan for the follow-up. Either treat it as a proof of concept, use the specs you discovered during vibe coding to build a manageable system, or make sure the tool you are using keeps complexity manageable, not invisible.