There’s no such thing as “people.”
There are different types of people.
From what I’m seeing, there are at least three types when it comes to this topic.
Note that I’m not referring specifically to SketchUp plugins, but to the “vibe coding” in general.
There are of course real developers who are adopting this technology as a tool to get ahead of what they already know exactly how to do.
There are completely ignorant people affected by Dunning Kruger who are spewing AI slop full of functionality, stability and security errors and who are seriously jeopardizing the average quality of the software out there.
These people don’t even know what their code does, they have absolutely no clue. The fact that they share things has nothing to do with generosity, but more often with exhibitionism and overestimation of their own mediocre work.
There are people who fall somewhere in the middle and have a basic understanding of the code and/or a specific software use case and are developing tools for themselves.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that this third category of people are individualists, but maybe they’re simply not stupid and know their limits, so they prefer to dig deeper, test, and make sure they don’t release unstable and dangerous things.
Just because a tool is good enough for your workflow doesn’t mean it’s necessarily mature enough to be released into the wild.
you do realise you’re likely the last generation of actual devs right ? give it a few years, a few better AI models, do you expect kids to go learn to code now ? why bother ? it might take some time, depends on the countries and all, but it’s coming.
I read something about it recently, “if companies don’t hire juniors anymore, how will they become senior one day?”. well if universities don’t make junior devs anymore, that’s not a question we need to ask is it ?
it’s not just sketchup. it’s not just devs. it’s being observed already by universities around the globe. AI is an amazing short term solution for a “quick payday”. AI helps people win
we’re about to do to knowledge what we already did to natural ressources, trade them for a quick win instead of a long term stability. we’re slaughtering buffalos all over again I guess.
I’m ok with it, I’ve made my peace. Besides, I kinda like the idea of being more knowledgeable than most. I don’t have kids and I don’t really care about people (yes, there is a thing such as “people”).
But ask yourself, do you want a society where people stop learning because it’s not as convenient as a magic box that spits moderately correct answers ? look beyond your comfort at the consequences.
I voluntarily derailed this thread because deep down, the real question is not about sketchup and making plugins. it’s about eating fast food vs learning to cook. it’s about learning a language vs relying on automated translation. it’s about doing thing not because they are easy, but because doing them makes us better.
it’s a reflection people need to have. what are you ready to trade for it ?
I’ll mute the thread now. I’m done with it. I have another massive heatwave coming. Can’t fight both knowledge and climate collapse. I’m only human.
You’ve sketched the types well. Let me add the one thing I think matters most, because it runs through all three.
It isn’t skill versus ignorance. It’s whether you share or stay hidden.
The opposite of luck is isolation. When you don’t tell people what you’re building, you cut yourself off, because almost every opportunity reaches you through someone who already knew what you were working on. Luck is just being visible early, and getting paid back later. The door opens for the person standing where others can see them.
So your “exhibitionist” might actually be doing the smart thing. Sharing the rough version isn’t showing off, it’s putting yourself where luck can find you. Every flaw in that early plugin is a chance for someone else to step in and help fix it. Meanwhile your careful, private builder, the one who keeps testing and waiting, might be missing chances he’d have gotten if he’d just shown people his work sooner.
And look at what “until it’s ready” really does to a project. Ready never comes. The closer you get to perfect, the further it moves, and all that polishing slowly turns into a place to hide. A tool you finish in private and never show anyone isn’t more responsible than a flawed one you share. It just disappears.
Reckless isn’t the only way to fail. Staying silent is too. It’s the quieter, more respectable failure, which is exactly why it catches the careful ones.
Mantra: Shipped and flawed beats perfect and hidden.
This maybe true to some extent when you are “shipping” to earn moneys and pay the bills.
But if you are “shipping” just for the sake of it, it’s pointless and most likely just show-offy.
In particular, when you ship a vibecoded website with vulnerability problems or a Sketchup extension with a $hit-ton of bugs, or whatever untested software in which you can’t understand what the heck code is doing, you aren’t doing any good to users.
You can have your opinion, but I kindly disagree.
“Shipped and flawed” was never an argument for dumping untested junk on people and walking away. It’s an argument against hiding until something feels perfect, because perfect rarely arrives and the waiting quietly costs you every bit of luck that comes from people knowing what you’re up to.
Flawed and shared doesn’t mean reckless. It means honest. “Here’s what I built, here’s where it’s rough, tell me where it breaks.” That’s how the bugs actually get found. The careful builder polishing alone in the dark isn’t safer, he just fails more quietly.
Don’t ship dangerous things, sure. But don’t mistake silence for responsibility either. Visible and imperfect still beats invisible and polished.
Why do you use therms such as “beat”, “fail”, “hide” and so on?
Are you into some kind of race?
Just curious.
I personally build extensions which are useful for myself.
I’ll eventually share when are safe for other people to use.
This by no means makes me an individualistic person (which was the original assumption I was repling to).
I think we’ve drifted from the actual point, so let me put it back simply.
Sharing isn’t just about being safe or generous. It’s part of how luck works. When people know what you’re building, they bring you things, a fix, an idea, an introduction, a use you never thought of. Stay fully private and none of that reaches you, because nobody even knows what you’re working on. That was the whole point. Not a race, not a jab at anyone, just how opportunity actually moves.
Respectfully, you have no clue what you are talking about.
Luck?
I already have a bunch of beta testers who knows how to use tools, how a beta test is done, some of them also understand code themselves.
The fact that YOU don’t know what I’m working on doesn’t mean that I’m “hiding in the dark” and all the other nonsense you are talking about. And doesn’t mean I’m more or less “lucky”.
Honestly, I’m one of those you’d classify as ignorant. I have zero coding experience or knowledge. I’m just whittling away at vibe coding prompts bit by bit hoping to formulate some kind of tools to make my life easier and have a little fun on the side,
If people want to use 'em I’ll share 'em. If people want to break them so things can be fixed, all the better. I’ll never sell this stuff, it’ll always be free.
No heat from me, and no claim about what you specifically do, I was talking about the three types you laid out, not you.
And honestly? You just made my point for me. You have beta testers, people who see your work, test it, understand the code. That’s exactly the visibility I meant. You’re not building in the dark, you’re sharing in the smart way. That’s the whole idea.
So we were never really on opposite sides. All good, take care.
You may find Claude worth trying. I recently discovered a powerful prompt that could be very useful when you want a deeper review of an app. I believe it requires the $100 subscription plan, and it is expensive to run.
The prompt asks Claude to use 99 agents to scan the app for bugs. It takes about an hour and uses the full five-hour usage allowance, but it may help uncover issues that a normal review could miss.
Yeah ChatGPT is like 20 bucks a month and I use it for other things, so here we are…
I’ve used Claude at work to make some tools for actionable efficiency in repetitive IT support tasks, so I know it blows Copilot and ChatGPT out of the water in that regard.
I don’t know why you call it “luck”. Exposure is not luck, exposure puts you out there so people and ideas can find you, there is no real luck in that. “Luck” is when you do expose yourself and then some deep pocketed guy likes your idea so much that he decides to drop 5 million on you, that is luck. Most of us aren’t so lucky.
Yes, if you want to increase your odds of “getting lucky” you need to put yourself out there. As the Japanese say, this is “Atari mae” (当たり前).
However perhaps more important than exposure or maybe of equal importance is persistence. As they say Rome wasn’t created in a day. If you have a good idea you need to work on it and you usually need to work on it for a good while before it becomes anything substantial. Most ideas are simply that, ideas. In order to create a good plugin one needs to polish it, and of course the degree of polishing only increases exponentially with the plugin’s complexity.
I think we may simply be using the word “luck” differently.
My point is that putting yourself out there creates the conditions for opportunities to find you. When the right person sees your work at the right moment, that may feel like luck, but it would not have happened if you had remained invisible.
