App Slop
I don’t want to be too verbose on this topic, but I think the era of app slop is upon us and the reasoning goes something like this:
- Vibe coding has real struggles - it works great in some cases, and the barrier to entry is very low
- However, unique anything is a recipe for hardship
- Business logic with more than one condition or multiple steps? Good luck!
- Tired Miyazaki is the ether of the vibe coding universe
- Thus those that persevere will have a downward pressure to simplify, simplify, simplify
- A proliferation of standard interactions will take place driven by the desire to survive the vibe
shadcn/uieverywhere!- Proportionally, creative UI/UX will diminish
- Everything becomes a suburban hellscape of bland utilitarian functionality
- Slop continues to take over
- Written slop is where it began
- Visual slop came next
- Now we are at the cusp of app slop
This is probably a bit too pessimistic, and I don’t want to be that guy. I really am an optimist as far as general AI and technological things go. The above is partially a reflection of the darker moments of my vibe coding efforts coupled to having a little fun on guessing what realities may come to be. I have made great strides with vibe coding only to suddenly hit brick walls on some of the most basic novelties. It’s shocking, challenging, fun and frustrating. But I feel confident that there will be an ongoing pressure to create a miasma of sameness because it works, and people like to make stuff that works!
The more positive perspective would be that constraint breeds creativity and the creativity may be concentrated in other dimensions of output, which I am quite excited to see! And who knows, maybe we’re only 10% of the way to how wonderful and joyous simple things can be. There have already been a ton of cute little creations making the rounds, so I’m sure there are more to come.