The evolution from syntax to judgment
Moving from authoring lines to steering outcomes.
Deep dive into vibe coding, why it matters, and what it means for developers and entrepreneurs
Understanding why developers are upset
Imagine you have been training your entire life to be a violinist. Every day you show up to rehearsal with a group of people who all had to pass 5 rounds of interviews—er, auditions—to join the orchestra.
Then one day, 700 people walk in off the street into your rehearsal and claim they're vibe violinists. They break instruments, they sound horrible, they clutter up your Twitter feed with recordings of their "work."
You and your real violinist friends laugh and trade stories of how these people don't know the difference between the tailpiece and the fingerboard.
But then one day, not that many days later, something terrifying happens. You hear a beautiful tune, and turn around to find a vibe violinist playing it.
And certainly, you think to yourself, that shouldn't be possible without a foundational music education. That shouldn't be possible when they're not even holding a violin the right way. You listen a while longer until in a blink, they falter, they lose the melody.
And so you turn back to your real violinist friends and you laugh at how these nincompoops thought they could play just like real violinists. You laugh and you laugh, and all the while you feel a tingle of anxiety along your scalp.
— Alberta Tech,Computers Were A Mistake
It's a really fucking scary time to be a developer.
Whether vibe coders start applying for developer roles or AI automates those roles altogether, vibe coders are the embodiment of the end of traditional coding careers. And it's normal to hate the person trying to take your job.
Coined by Andrej Karpathy, co-creator of ChatGPT
"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. I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even touch the keyboard.
I ask for the dumbest things like 'decrease the padding on the sidebar by half' because I'm too lazy to find it. I accept all, always. I don't read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages, I just copy paste them in with no comment. Usually that fixes it.
The code grows beyond my usual comprehension. Sometimes the LLM can't fix a bug so I just work around it and ask for random changes until it goes away."
— Andrej Karpathy,January 2025
This is not some random guy. This is one of the best programmers on earth, and he just "vibes" with AI to build software.
The difference is control
You're still driving. You understand what's happening. You're using AI to autocomplete and speed things up.
Jesus take the wheel. Look ma, no hands. It's about giving control to the AI and focusing on the "vibes."
Bottom line: The center of gravity moves from correctness to direction.
AI coding capability is accelerating relentlessly
Remember: Today's AI is the worst AI you will ever use.
The writing will improve. The context window will improve. The costs will drop. Whatever AI can't do today, give it six months...
Betting against AI getting better is not a good bet.
Source:Aaron Francis on X
Coding is the canary in the coal mine
Coding is getting disrupted first because the people building AI are coders—they know that domain. But as soon as they start working with healthcare professionals, legal teams, accountants, we'll see similar patterns in those industries.
It's happening fast and first in coding because that's what the engineers know about. It's a preview of how AI will roll out in other industries.
Junior roles are getting wiped out. The path to senior is narrowing. The 9-5 programming job is going to be rocky.
Consider pivoting to entrepreneurial work—build something you own.
This is massive. The tools are democratized. You can go from idea to working MVP in an hour.
You can no longer hide behind the technical excuse.
The "billion dollar idea" excuse is dead.
Previously, entrepreneurs would say: "I've got a billion dollar idea, I just need to hire developers" or "I just need to learn Python." Now you can build it in an afternoon. You'll quickly realize building isn't the hard part—marketing and getting customers is.
Three paths depending on your comfort level
Best for complete beginners
Looks like ChatGPT. Just describe what you want. Lowest learning curve but also least powerful.
Try LovableMiddle ground
A legit code editor with AI built in. Good if you want to understand what's happening under the hood.
Try CursorMost powerful option
Steeper learning curve—requires command line knowledge. But if you have any coding background, this is the no-brainer choice.
Cost: $200/month for Max plan (realistically necessary)
The $20 plan hits limits fast. But if you're building things that generate revenue, $200/month is one of the best investments you can make.
If you coded for 20 years but haven't for 10: Go with Claude Code. The command line won't scare you, and it's significantly more powerful than the alternatives.
15-page visual guide to vibe coding
Complete transcript from the live stream discussion
Good morning and welcome to AI with Kyle. It is January the 14th, and there is a picture of myself on screen if you are wondering why that is. I had a video kick off yesterday. On Instagram we're about 200,000 views. We're about a hundred thousand or so on TikTok as well.
Around the question of vibe coding, it has hit a nerve and a lot of people—over a quarter of a million people—are watching it, engaging with it, and quite a few of them are a little bit angry. I wanted to talk about what vibe coding is. I wanted to clear up some misconceptions and help people who are wondering why others are getting so upset about this understand why this is a big deal.
I actually want to start with Alberta Tech. Make sure you are following them over on social media—they have a Substack called Computers Were A Mistake. Very good read. So Alberta Tech is a coder, is a programmer, and they start here: over the past six months, I've made 21 videos making fun of vibe coders.
If you aren't a developer yourself, you might not quite understand why so many people enjoy these jokes or why I keep bothering to make them in the first place. So let me explain. This is one of the best explanations I've ever heard.
[The full violin analogy as quoted above in the page...]
It's a really fucking scary time to be a developer. That is the truth of it. Whether vibe coders actually start applying for developer roles or AI automates those roles altogether, vibe coders are the embodiment of the end of a traditional coding career, at least in the way that many of us have come to know it.
Vibe coding is a relatively new term. It was coined and popularized by Andre Karpathy, one of the co-creators of ChatGPT, only in 2025. So actually we're coming up on the one year anniversary of the term vibe coding.
[Karpathy's full quote as included above...]
Now, this is not just some random guy. This is Andre Karpathy. He co-created ChatGPT. He is a very good programmer. He's a very good coder. He is at the top of his game, but he plays around with AI to create software.
What's causing concern is that just vibing is getting better. And better. And better. There's this brilliant tweet from Aaron Francis showing the progression and where we are now.
Every year we retreat to a new position. Every year that position falls. The AI gets better. Betting against it getting better is not a good bet.
Ethan Mollick said this years ago and it's still true: "Remember, today's AI is the worst AI you will ever use." The writing will improve. The context window will improve. The costs will drop. Whatever AI can't do today, give it six months...
OK all well and good. But if you aren't a coder why the hell should you care? Coding is the canary in the coal mine.
It's getting disrupted first because the people building AI are coders—they know that domain. But as soon as they start working with healthcare professionals, legal teams, accountants, we'll see similar patterns in those industries.
If you're a coder in a job? A 9-5. This is going to be rough. Junior roles are getting wiped out. The path to senior is narrowing. There's no way around this: the future of coding as a profession is going to be very different. Probably for the worst.
For entrepreneurs this is massive. Previously, every startup event I went to had people saying "I've got a billion dollar idea, I just need to find a CTO" or "I just need to learn Python." That excuse is gone. You can go from idea to working MVP in an hour using tools like Lovable.
Three paths depending on your comfort level: Lovable—best for complete beginners. Looks like ChatGPT. Just describe what you want. Lowest learning curve but also least powerful.
Cursor—middle ground. A legit code editor but with AI built in. Good if you want to understand what's happening.
Claude Code—the most powerful option. Steeper learning curve. You'll need the command line, which terrifies non-coders. But if you have any coding background, this is the no-brainer choice. Costs $100-200/month for the Max plan (realistically necessary—the $20 plan hits limits fast).
Member question: "I coded for 20 years, haven't for 10. What's the best choice for me?" Claude Code, absolutely. Because you know code, things like the command line interface won't scare you. You'll pick it up quickly and it's just more powerful than the alternatives.
Member question: "We have a new role to monitor the vibe coders." Yeah, this is what Alberta Tech talks about. Coders become orchestrators—managing AI agents instead of managing a team. But the big question is: do we need as many orchestrators as we had coders?
If one orchestrator can work with 10-20 agents, companies will hire fewer humans. The counterargument is "we'll hire the same people but produce 10x more"—but that relies on demand growing to match supply. When your customers can build their own software in an afternoon, when competitors can recreate your SaaS overnight... I don't think demand will keep up.
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