#productivity

Karpathy coined "vibe coding" in February 2025 as a fun way to throw away weekend projects. The 2026 audits show what happens when the workflow leaks into production — the debt is real, it is comprehension debt, and it was deferred rather than erased.

Brooks said adding people to a late project makes it later. Adding LLMs follows a similar pattern, except the cost lands on a different axis — output rises while shared understanding of the system erodes, and the resulting cognitive debt eventually has to be paid.