Vibe Coding

The Digital Equivalent

of "Just Talk to It"

Remember when we were promised flying cars by 2020? Well, instead we got "vibe coding" – the art of chatting with your computer until it spits out an app. Progress, I suppose.

If you've been anywhere near tech X/Twitter or LinkedIn or (insert name of any tech newsletter, blog, magazine, …) lately, you've undoubtedly been bombarded with enthusiastic posts about how anyone can now create software by simply having a conversation with tools like Bolt.new, Cursor, Replit, Lovable, and many other similar tools.

THE FUTURE IS HERE! DEVELOPERS ARE OBSOLETE! Or so the hyped-up headlines would have you believe.

I've spent countless hours testing these tools, and yes, they're genuinely impressive. There's something magical about describing an app and watching it materialize before your eyes. It's like having a genie, except instead of granting wishes, it generates janky JavaScript.

But let's get real for a moment. While you can indeed create a functioning Pac-Man clone or a to-do list that works just well enough to impress your family and non-technical friends, deploying anything resembling production-quality software remains firmly in the realm of fantasy. At least today.

The code these tools generate is the software equivalent of a Jenga tower built by a caffeinated toddler – it works until someone breathes on it wrong. Try adding authentication, database management, or payment processing, and you'll soon find yourself contemplating whether your MacBook would make a satisfying sound when thrown against the wall.

Through my extensive testing, I've learned that the marketing promise that "anyone can do it" comes with an asterisk the size of Texas. Unless you have some background in software development, you're likely to end up frustrated. You don't necessarily need to be a full-stack engineer, but Product Managers and Designers will have a significant advantage over complete novices.

Here's the harsh truth: vibe coding isn't the democratization of software development; it's the democratization of creating weekend projects that will never see the light of a production environment.

For those brave souls who still want to venture into this territory, I've learned a few lessons:

First, have a plan. Don't approach vibe coding like you're having an impromptu chat with a barista. The more detailed your initial requirements, the better your results. These tools don't excel at major pivots or significant refactoring. Attaching a document to the chat that contains as much detail as you can think of from the beginning will save hours of frustration.

Second, set appropriate expectations. The moment you start asking for "just one more feature" or "small changes" to something you built earlier, you're entering what I call the "vibe coding death spiral." What started as a fun weekend project quickly devolves into a frustrating mess of contradictory instructions and deteriorating code quality.

Finally, take those viral success stories with a grain of salt. Notice how nearly all the vibe coding evangelists have technical backgrounds? They're not mentioning the dozen attempts that failed before they got that perfect TikTok-worthy demo. They know enough to navigate around the pitfalls that would send the average user into coding purgatory.

Don't get me wrong – these tools are remarkable technological achievements and genuinely useful for proof-of-concept and rapid prototyping. The ability to quickly visualize an idea without writing a line of code is revolutionary for brainstorming and concept validation.

But surprisingly, due to the hyper-rapid advancements in no-code tools, experts project we may be able to generate production-ready code by the end of 2025 or early 2026. The future is coming faster than we might think. For now, professional developers can rest easy – your jobs are safe, though you might want to start making friends with these tools, just in case.

So go ahead and give vibe coding a try. It's fun, it's impressive, and it offers a glimpse into a fascinating future. Just remember that when someone claims they built their startup's entire infrastructure by chatting with an AI over a weekend, they're either lying or they'll be hiring actual developers very, very soon.