Blog

Programming insights to Storytelling, it's all here.

Ibrahim Diallo

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2025

May

Vibe Coding

Vibe Coding

Describe what you want and AI generates the entire codebase. That’s vibe coding. Imagine you have an LLM that can build a car for you. All you have to say is “Build a car for me, here are the specs.” And it gets started right away. Before you know it, a two ton machine drops in front of you and bounces as the suspension recoils. You open the door, press on the ignition button and nothing happens. Unless you understand how cars work internally, which you don't, your option will be limited to “Rebuild the car, but with a working power button”.

In the Age of AI, Don't Forget About System 2

In the Age of AI, Don't Forget About System 2

A few years ago, I took a job 25 miles from my home in Los Angeles. The city is famous for many things, but for commuters, it's the land of traffic. To avoid this traffic, I immediately reached for a technological solution. Each morning, I would get in my car, turn on GPS navigation, and follow the turn-by-turn directions to work. The route varied daily as the app sought to circumvent traffic jams. It would often lead me through intricate networks of side streets and residential neighborhoods.

Why do we need teachers? We have all the books

Why do we need teachers? We have all the books

A few days into my first JavaScript class, I decided I didn’t need school anymore. I read the book from beginning to end. I completed every single exercise. I ran the code on all projects. It worked. I went on to build my own website and applied the things I learned from the book. We still had 2 months of class to go through.

Shorts Is Short for Climax

Shorts Is Short for Climax

My kids often ask me why they’re allowed to watch YouTube videos but not Shorts. My answer is simple: Shorts are banned in this household. That doesn’t actually explain anything, of course. But then again, I don’t need to break down the neuroscience of cocaine to know it shouldn’t be on the breakfast table.

Preparing for when the Machine Stops

Preparing for when the Machine Stops

For over two decades, I’ve worked as a software developer. At some point along the way, writing JavaScript stopped being something I had to think about, it just happened. Building CRUD apps, managing forms, handling the DOM, these became second nature. I could step into almost any project and instantly start wiring things up. This is what Daniel Kahneman refers to as System 1 thinking: fast, intuitive, automatic.

All Your Devices Are Belong to Us

All Your Devices Are Belong to Us

When I imagined the future of technology, I pictured a world where all my devices worked together seamlessly under my control. My car would never get lost in a parking lot because it could simply tell me its location. My home would intelligently manage the thermostat to save energy. The garage door would open automatically when it detected my arrival. My phone would serve as a personal assistant, coordinating everything to make each day run smoothly. At home, a central hub would connect all these devices, sharing information to optimize my life.

SQL Injection as a Feature

SQL Injection as a Feature

Looking at old applications, we always wonder who in their right mind thought of building them so badly. I encountered such an application in my career, and I was lucky enough that they had used version control to preserve its history. Let me describe how the application looked in its latest state.

April

Audacity 4.0 Needs an Asset Manager

Audacity 4.0 Needs an Asset Manager

I’ve been using Audacity for over a decade, and for most of that time, it’s been my go-to tool for quick audio edits. Need to trim a podcast? Normalize a voice recording? Remove background noise? Audacity handles it effortlessly. But every time I’ve tried to use it for something bigger, an audiobook, a documentary, or a music project, I’ve hit a wall.

Why AI shouldn't book your Flight

Why AI shouldn't book your Flight

During a demo for our AI agent, a sales colleague once asked, ‘How does it process refunds? Does it click through the website like a human?’ I grinned and said, ‘Nope, it just calls the refund API.’ Cue the blank stares.

Saying No to Your Customers

Saying No to Your Customers

At my old job, I built subscription management pages. The kind that should let customers cancel with a few clicks. We were a customer service automation company. Most clients understood this basic courtesy. One did not.

JS Tip of the day

When to use Object.hasOwnProperty

In JavaScript, everything is an object. This is amazing because you never have to ask yourself if something is an object. The answer is always Yes. Let's look a…

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