Aaron Saray
Software developer, engineering coach and CTO with two decades in the field, working with engineering managers and developers on team practices and with clients...
“In order to guarantee a long-term end result... you need a little bit more thought up front, a little bit more planning up front. And you need to watch the process too, because the end result isn't necessarily what's great. You might go to a kitchen and they serve you a burger in four minutes, but the whole kitchen is messy and destroyed and you can't get a second burger out the door. You just vibe me a hamburger. Yes, it was done, but where's my second hamburger if I ever need one? It'll take 27 minutes now.”
No Compromises · Hands-On Engineering Podcasts · October 2026
Context
Aaron Saray on why vibe coding trades long-term quality for a fast first result, and why he still plans and reviews everything AI writes for him.
Transcript
…to me, when you say care about the internals, that's what that sounds like to me. Yeah. I care about the end results, but I care about the end result. Today, like here about the end result tomorrow and next month and next year and five years from now if possible. And I think that's the difference.
So it's kind of like short-term end result versus long-term end result.
Right. And to, in order to like guarantee a long-term end result, it's like everything else in the world, programming or otherwise, where you need a little bit more thought up front, a little bit more planning up front. And you need to watch the process too, because the end result isn't necessarily what's great. You might go to a kitchen and then they serve you a burger in four minutes, but the whole kitchen is messy and destroyed and you can't get another second burger out the door. Well, that's a problem. You just vibe me a hamburger. Yes, it was done, but where's my second hamburger if I ever need one? It'll take 27 minutes now. Oh,
two hamburgers. Okay. Yeah, I like that. And I totally get what you were saying. And in my head, I was not framing it that way, but I've heard that like the person who just cares so much about the craft and the satisfaction it brings them and it is like completely blind to the outside world…
Right. Well, and it's not that you don't care about the code. It's just it's one of many things that you care about and one of many things you balance out.
Yeah.