Paul Graham
On Y Combinator Startup Podcast
“I remember what you said: don't look at that, don't look at the code, that's object code. And I'm like, oh no, the whole stuff I've spent decades making is just object code.”
Y Combinator Startup Podcast · Startups & Venture · November 2026
Context
Graham was recalling Masad's summer 2024 demo of what later became vibe coding, and the dismay he felt. It captures how a veteran programmer reacted to AI-written code.
Transcript
…been trying to, you were trying to build Replit before it was called Replit for like, you know, years and years and years, right? This has always been the big thing. Right. So of course you thought of stuff before everybody else. So you knew back to that famous demo, right, in the summer of 2024.
When you called me a bond villain.
Well, you seemed like a bond villain, you know? That's what I felt like that I was being shown this frightening thing because I remember, I still remember what you said. Don't look at that. Don't look at the code. That's object code. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, oh no, the stuff I, the whole stuff that I make, the whole stuff I've spent decades making is just object code.
No, everyone was realizing that. Like, I think I've been seeing like engineers that were also repulsed by that. I remember your tweet was very controversial when I tweeted that.
That guy who generated vast amounts of code using AI. Yeah.
Well, even that tweet about me being the one. Bill and object code and all of that was also controversial. But now all engineers are, you know, I think with AI, everyone will have to go through this period of, you know, denial and then, and then sort of later on, you know, depression and then, you…
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