I Tried Vibe Coding - Here Are My Thoughts

Hey guys. So, you probably heard this new buzzword going around vibe coding. And I want to talk a little bit about what that is and how I've been using it and what I think about it, both good and bad. [Music] All right. So, what the hell is vibe coding? In simple terms, vibe coding is a specific approach to programming that leverages AI tools to generate code rather than relying solely on traditional manual coding. And it's it's not a real groundbreaking concept. Um the term vibe coding was coined by Andre Carpathy who's a well-known figure in the AI community who made a tweet about it in kind of a joking manner. And I'll put that tweet on screen, but here's a summary of what he said. So he said, "There's a new kind of coding I call vibe coding where you fully give into the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists." And then he goes on to say that he barely touches the keyboard. He asks AI to do dumb stuff like decrease padding. He accepts all the diffs without reading and just copy and paste error messages into the LLM until they go away. So, this is obviously, you know, in a he's saying it in a joking way, being sarcastic, kind of tongue-in-cheek, but it's also disturbingly accurate if you've ever used Chat GPT or or co-pilot at 2 a.m. on a side project. So to me, vibe coding is this it's this new style of development where you're not carefully crafting every line of code anymore. And you're really just collaborating with an AI. You describe what you want. You you tried stuff. You, you know, throw things at the wall to see what sticks. You're not getting bogged down in the details. You're just vibing and not meticulously engineering each part of the system. And you just kind of feel your way through, react in real time. So, it's it's more about the vibes, right? Um, and I know to a lot of you that sounds like an absolute horrible way to write code. And I would say that personally I would agree with a lot of your points, but at the same time, I can see and have experienced the benefits of vibe coding over the past six months or so. And I think vibe coding can be very powerful if it's used correctly and if it's used by the right types of developers at the right time in their career, you know. So it's not so much about writing perfect code. It's about getting stuff done and being productive. And I've started incorporating this type of development into some areas of my side projects, which is, you know, where I think this what I think this is best for, at least right now. And honestly, my productivity has skyrocketed. you know, I'm I'm able to get more done than I ever have in less time, and I'm also uh learning in the process. Now, here's the important part. I don't think that vibe coding is a replacement for traditional coding, at least at this moment in time. Uh I I do think that it's the future, and I'll talk a little bit about that soon. But um I I would say even more importantly, beginners have to be very careful when it comes to vibe coding because in my opinion, you need to learn the fundamentals first before you can start vibing with the AI. And your first few serious projects should be your own code and you should understand every single line. Otherwise, you're going to end up with just a bunch of random crap that you don't understand. And I think that that's kind of the dangerous part of all this for experienced developers. I think it's another tool for you to be more productive. But for beginners, I think it can be a crutch that prevents you from learning the stuff that is absolutely necessary to be a good developer, you know, and I've never been one of those guys that that picks apart everyone else's code and thinks it always has to be perfect or it has to be done my way. I know there's a lot of those types of people. Um, but I come from the freelancing world where you need to get things done quickly and efficiently. So, I tend to think more positive about this type of fast workflow. However, I also realize that it can become a crutch and I think it's okay for beginners to to vibe code if they're just trying to gain interest. I think it can help them get to those aha moments and just kind of keep excitement going because it'll allow them to create something that they probably wouldn't have created on their own at that time. Um, but this needs to be proceeded with caution and not used in production. You know, you should never push code to production that you don't understand. And I think that it's best for for dealing with small pieces of code. I think that's where it shines, not generating tens of thousands of lines that you just shove into your project. I think that's a a debugging nightmare waiting to happen. But everything that that I generate from AI that I use, I fully understand. I know how it works. I know how to fix it if it breaks. I think that's the key to using these tools effectively. Uh it's meant to be a supplement to your existing knowledge, not a replacement for it. And I can't stress this enough. So, Vibe coding can be prone to security flaws. Obviously, um the reason why it's not the same as low code is because low code tools are written by developers who know what they're doing and and usually have already considered security and best practices. uh vibe coding can be dangerous for newbies because you're modifying the source code itself without any guard rails. Also, keep in mind that uh the things that tools like chat GPT can do are impressive. However, a lot of the code that AI generates, it just sucks and it's outdated. And we know that things in the industry are constantly changing just overnight. And these AI models, they need time to learn new libraries and new syntax. And sometimes it's just flatout wrong. And I don't mean like just giving you inefficient code. I mean like the sky is yellow wrong. Um what I think vibe coding is great for are MVPs or minimum viable products. Uh prototyping supplemental learning. If you're taking a course and you don't fully understand something and you you need it needed to be elaborated a little more, AI is great for that. So is vibe coding a good thing? Sure it can be. Is it a bad thing? Sure it can be. I think the key is to find a balance between using AI tools and writing your own code. You know, use them to help you, but don't rely on them completely. And if you're using AI generated code, go over it line by line and make sure you actually understand it. And if it's a personal project, understand the, you know, the gist of it. If it's a production project, you should understand every line to a tea, at least in my opinion. And I know there's people that are going to disagree with that and say that, you know, using AI is cheating or it's not real coding, but I think that that's kind of a narrow-minded way of looking at it. The world is definitely changing and uh we just need to adapt to it. You know, AI is here to stay, so why not embrace it and learn how to use it to your advantage? Uh because what's the alternative? Just whining on Twitter and Reddit. Uh I mean, AI isn't the enemy. It's just it's another tool. And just use it with intention. Don't get lazy and don't let it replace learning the craft.