Vibe Check: Do I Miss Writing Code?

Last week I realized I kind of miss coding manually.

A coworker and I were pair programming. We spent most of an hour trying to define, center, and pad one SVG without using AI.

We debated how the circle tag worked. We guessed what the numbers meant. The MDN docs explained cx, cy, and r, but it still took us a while to understand how those values positioned the circle. Then we had to sort out nested SVG tags.

It was hilarious. AI probably could have done it in seconds.

We wasted an hour on an SVG. It felt great.

It was frustrating, refreshing, and weirdly cathartic. We had to think together, test dumb theories, and slowly understand the thing.

Meanwhile, I’ve been building projects like Nuzlocked.io and DeadlockTierList.com in parallel with my full-time job.

In a few weeks I’ve shipped:

• multi-tenant full-stack apps
• in-browser console emulation
• save parsing
• sometimes hundreds of commits and tens of thousands of lines of code in a day

wdym these are casual side projects?

I’ve been tokenmaxxing in the background while working my day job. These may be the most productive months of my life.

That is exciting. Ngl, it also creates guilt.

In college I ran an agency called CrystalFruit. We sometimes had contracts worth $1k to $10k or more for projects that were a fraction of this size. Now I can get much more done with roughly $200 a month in AI tools, often ten times faster.

That is nuts.

Also, kinda glad I didn’t go all-in on a web design agency now... 😅

I’m not going to stop using AI. It helps me build too much, too quickly, to pretend otherwise. But the SVG reminded me why I still want to solve some problems myself. Sometimes the point is understanding how the thing works, even if it takes longer.

Using AI a little better

Going forward, I want to learn more about Green AI and use these tools with less waste: choose smaller models when they are enough, avoid pointless reruns, and pay attention to where the compute comes from.

Europe’s Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact says its signatories aim to match data-center electricity demand with 100% renewable or hourly carbon-free energy by 2030. That kind of commitment should be easier to find when choosing a provider.

The goal is not to become magically guilt-free. I want to keep understanding the code, waste less energy, and pay attention to whose work and data made these models possible.

🔥 Not so hot take

The SVG didn’t need an hour. Spending an hour figuring it out together was still worth it.