Both of these narratives are caricatures of reality. In previous articles, I've talked about my work on a variety of vibe-coded projects. We've looked at how they're both amazing and a lot of work. In this article, I'm going to dive deep into the maintenance and sustainability questions that come from ceding coding control to a machine.

When I was a young product manager, I was sent down to Los Angeles to support our sales VP. He decided to take me to one of his favorite restaurants. This restaurant specialized in fusion cuisine, which meant the chef would mix a lot of different influences into his food. It had a reputation for its chef's special, which was whatever the chef decided to create for you that evening.

I remember wondering just what I'd gotten myself into. I knew that I'd get food, but I had no idea what I would be expected to ingest. As it turned out, the food we ate that night was…weird. It was edible. It was not someplace I'd go again voluntarily.

Agentic coding is a lot like going to that restaurant. You know that the reputation of the coding AI you're using is good, but you really have no idea what's going to be delivered to you. You have little insight into the actual code coming from the AI. You're basically going to have to eat it, regardless of what you've been served.