There is an uncomfortable, under-discussed truth in the vibe coding age and it is that most of what we’re building is digital landfill.
I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ll spend two hours building a bespoke, hyper-specific TODO app or a niche research scraper, tell myself “this is my new workflow,” and then never open the tab again. It’s shelved and forgotten within forty-eight hours.
If you look at this through the lens of traditional software or product development (not to mention personal productivity), it looks like a massive waste of resources. But I’d argue that focusing on the “abandonment rate” misses the point entirely.
We need to stop thinking of software as a permanent monument and start thinking of it like Lego. With Lego, the joy is in the making. You scratch a creative itch, you solve a structural problem, and you see the thing take shape. Then, you tear it down and throw the pieces back in the box. Sometimes, a masterpiece makes it to the mantelpiece, but most of it is just “play.”
Software (or at least "personal" software) is starting to look more like Lego. An outlet for creativity and play. Some things will stick, most won’t, but that’s a feature, not a bug. We’re finally at a point where we can build things "just" to see them come to life, scratch an itch for an afternoon, and throw the pieces back in the box when we’re done.
That isn’t a loss of productivity or a waste. It’s creative freedom.
