{ "version": "https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1.1", "title": "Ilya Birman’s Blog: posts tagged AI", "_rss_description": "Ilya Birman’s blog on design, cities, music, and life", "_rss_language": "en", "_itunes_email": "ilyabirman@ilyabirman.net", "_itunes_categories_xml": "<\/itunes:category>\r\n<\/itunes:category>\r\n\r\n", "_itunes_image": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic-square@2x.jpg?1573933764", "_itunes_explicit": "no", "home_page_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/ai\/", "feed_url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/tags\/ai\/json\/", "icon": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764", "authors": [ { "name": "Ilya Birman", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/", "avatar": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1573933764" } ], "items": [ { "id": "393", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/vibe-coding-and-quality\/", "title": "Vibe coding and quality", "content_html": "

When you hear that some app was “vibe coded”, how much quality do you expect?<\/p>\n

As recently as last year, vibe coding seemed like nothing more than a toy to me. Sure, it was cool that you could tell a computer to build something and it would sort of build it. But the result would be held together with duct tape and only good enough as a prototype. To make something high-quality and reliable, you need to keep the entire codebase under control. You can use AI to write it, but you need to understand what abstractions are being used, how things are connected, how different events are handled, how storage is arranged, and so on.<\/p>\n

But now I am developing a Mac app, and I am coming to the opposite conclusion. I started making the app because none of the existing alternatives written by actual Mac programmers satisfied me: the quality was too low. Surprisingly, even the app that Codex wrote for me on the first day (after a week of leisurely conversations to produce the initial spec) already works faster and nicer than all the alternatives. And I can see plenty of directions for improvement.<\/p>\n

Now it seems to me that the level of quality I look for is simply unattainable through conventional programming. If I could program something like this myself, I would not have the patience to polish every last detail. If I had an experienced Mac programmer next to me, they would have even less patience for my complaints about imperfections that are visible only when reviewing a screencast frame by frame.<\/p>\n

In my experience, most programmers simply do not notice many such details, or do not consider them important. But even if I happened to find someone who did notice and care, I would hesitate to ask them to try rewriting the whole thing in a completely different way just to see whether it might feel a tiny bit better — they are a real human, after all! And the rare programmers with equally high standards of quality are unlikely to be sitting around waiting for me to direct them. They have plenty of ideas of their own.<\/p>\n

So now I think that high quality is achievable only<\/i> through vibe coding.<\/p>\n", "summary": "When you hear that some app was “vibe coded”, how much quality do you expect? Just last year, vibe coding seemed like a toy to me, where the result would feel held together with duct tape. And today I think that high quality is achievable only through vibe coding", "date_published": "2026-08-21T02:11:14+05:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-21T16:13:43+05:00", "tags": [ "AI", "programming" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:11:14 +0500", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "393", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } }, { "id": "377", "url": "https:\/\/ilyabirman.net\/meanwhile\/all\/automatic-email-sorting\/", "title": "The problem with automatic email sorting", "content_html": "

New email apps keep coming out, trying to organize your inbox. Folders in email were invented nearly fifty years ago, and since then we’ve had filters, rules, and now AI — all aiming to automate sorting.<\/p>\n

Some apps don’t even call them “folders” anymore, but “categories” or something else that only adds to the confusion. Every new app tries to outsmart the others at sorting: “inbox”, “important”, “newsletters”, “social”, “purchases”.<\/p>\n

Even Apple Mail recently jumped in with its own version: “primary”, “promotions”, and so on. Surely, I have no idea how it decides where things go. To avoid missing an email, I have to check all the categories, so the workload goes up, not down. “Didn’t get our message? Check your spam, secondary, non-urgent, and low-priority folders!” I turned that off immediately, of course.<\/p>\n

For some reason, email designers don’t get that folders only work when you create them yourself and sort things manually. If the system exists in your head and you stick to it, you can trust it. But someone else’s system makes you second-guess everything.<\/p>\n

Instead of sorting emails into folders, computers should be mining the actual information from them.<\/p>\n

Yes, finding booking references and boarding pass QR codes in your inbox is a pain. But even finding them inside an email you’ve already opened is a pain! I don’t want just a folder with those emails — ideally, I’d see the info without even opening a message. If I do need more context, let there be a shortcut to the original message. And I don’t care what folder it’s in.<\/p>\n

If an email invites me to a conference and asks me to respond by the 25th, I want that deadline clearly flagged next to the message. And show me, in my inbox, the three emails I should respond to today — based on what they say. Leave folders for people who actually like manual sorting.<\/p>\n", "summary": "New email apps keep coming out, trying to organize your inbox. Folders in email were invented nearly fifty years ago, and since then we’ve had filters", "date_published": "2025-05-23T20:14:18+05:00", "date_modified": "2025-05-23T20:14:14+05:00", "tags": [ "AI", "email", "interface" ], "_date_published_rfc2822": "Fri, 23 May 2025 20:14:18 +0500", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "377", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [] } } ], "_e2_version": 4306, "_e2_ua_string": "Aegea 12.0a (v4306e)" }