The Pragmatic Engineer Beyond Vibe Coding with Addy Osmani
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Oct 29, 2025 
Addy Osmani, Head of Chrome Developer Experience at Google, discusses the evolution of software engineering with AI assistance. He contrasts vibe coding with AI-driven techniques and emphasizes the importance of discipline in development. Addy introduces the '70% problem,' where AI can rapidly produce initial app components but struggles with final details. He also highlights the critical role of manual oversight in code reviews and shares insights on using AI for onboarding and enhancing collaboration between designers and engineers.
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Write Specs And Tests Before Generating Code
- Use spec-driven development: define clear requirements before asking an LLM to generate code.
- Write tests early so you can verify outputs and de-risk AI-generated changes.
Context And Oversight Scale Model Value
- Tooling and context engineering matter: provide project-specific files, examples, and descriptions to boost LLM outputs.
- Human oversight remains crucial as model-generated velocity can create review bottlenecks.
When AI Code Needs Manual Debugging
- Addy debugged LLM-generated code that looked right but failed to work, forcing him to manually diagnose the issue.
- He warns that not reading generated code leaves you lost when you must maintain or fix it.
