What's all this fuss about "Vibe Coding"?

"Vibe coding" is one of those terms that sounds like a joke until you actually see it in action. If you’ve spent any time on tech Twitter lately, you’ve probably seen people building entire apps while barely touching their keyboards.

But what actually is it? And is it just "lazy coding" or something bigger?

The Origin Story

The term was coined by Andrej Karpathy (the former AI lead at Tesla and co-founder of OpenAI). In early 2025, he posted about a new way of working where you essentially "forget that the code even exists." You aren't writing lines; you're managing a "vibe."

Since then, it’s moved from a meme to a legitimate workflow. In fact, by the end of 2025, even Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai was talking about how it’s making development "exciting again."

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So, what is it exactly?

Vibe coding is a shifted relationship with your computer.

In traditional coding, you are the writer. You worry about syntax, semicolons, and memory management. In vibe coding, you are the Director.

You use AI agents (like Cursor, Replit, or Lovable) to handle the actual "dirty work." You provide a high-level goal—"Make this look like Instagram but for bird watchers"—and the AI scaffolds the backend, styles the CSS, and wires up the database.

The workflow looks like this:

1. Describe the Vibe: "Add a dark mode toggle that glows neon blue."

2. Observe: Watch the AI generate 200 lines of code in 4 seconds.

3. Refine: "The blue is too bright. Make it subtle and move it to the right."

4. Repeat: You iterate via conversation until the "vibe" is right.

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Is this the end of the Software Engineer?

Not exactly. But it is the end of the "Syntax Specialist."

The irony of vibe coding is that it actually requires more high-level knowledge. If the AI hallucinates a bug in a complex SQL query, a non-coder is stuck. A "Vibe Coder" with a background in engineering can spot the logic error, point the AI to the specific file, and fix it in seconds.

It’s moving the skill set from Execution to Taste and System Design. ### The Good, The Bad, and The "Slop"

• The Good: You can build a prototype in a weekend that would have taken a team 3 months in 2020. It's the ultimate tool for indie hackers and founders.

• The Bad: It’s easy to create "Spaghetti Vibe." If you don't keep an eye on the architecture, the AI will eventually start tripping over its own feet as the project gets bigger.

• The "Slop": We're seeing a lot of "slop" applications—apps that look okay on the surface but are full of security holes and unoptimized junk because the "vibe" was the only thing the creator cared about.

The "God Tier" Use Case: Demos and Wireframes

Where vibe coding really shines—and where I think every dev should be using it—is in the "Early Phase."

In the old days (like, two years ago), if you had an idea for a feature, you’d spend hours in Figma building a static wireframe, then another day setting up a boilerplate repo just to see if the idea even worked.

With vibe coding, the wireframe is the app.

• Rapid Prototyping: You can spin up a functional MVP in an afternoon. It might not have the world's cleanest architecture yet, but you can actually click buttons and see real data flowing.

• Stakeholder Demos: Instead of showing a client a "picture" of a dashboard, you can show them a working one. If they say, "Can we see this as a bar chart instead?" you can change the "vibe" in real-time during the meeting.

• Throwaway Experiments: It’s perfect for those "what if" ideas. If the idea sucks, you only lost 20 minutes of prompting instead of 20 hours of manual coding.

My Take

I don't think "vibe coding" is a replacement for real engineering, but ignoring it is a mistake. It’s a superpower for the boring stuff.

The future of coding isn't just about knowing Javascript, Python or Rust; it's about being the best possible pilot for the AI at your side.

What do you think? Is "vibe coding" making us better builders, or just making us move faster in the wrong direction?