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Vibe Coding2026-07-21 · source-backed
In a July 20 essay Willison argues the barrier to reverse-engineering home devices and undocumented APIs was never technical, it was effort versus payoff, with maintenance burden making the initial investment feel risky. "Coding agents change that equation entirely. The effort to get a simple automation working has dropped, as has the cost of trying and failing to get it to work." That generalizes well past home automation. When code is cheap to produce, abandonment stops being a sunk cost, which unlocks an entire class of projects you previously killed at the maintenance-burden question. I've started three things this month I'd have talked myself out of a year ago.
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Simon Willison uses Claude / Shared entities / Same source domain / Earlier coverage
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Simon Willison released LLM / Shared entities / Same source domain / Earlier coverage / Tension
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Simon Willison uses Claude Code / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
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Simon Willison released LLM / Shared entities / Earlier coverage
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Simon Willison released LLM / Shared entities / Same source domain / Earlier coverage
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison released LLM); both cover Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison released LLM); both cover Simon Willison, Willison; reported by the same outlet (simonwillison.net).