I’ve been watching this whole vibe coding thing explode over the past year
Everywhere I look someone’s talking about how AI is changing programming but what’s really happening behind the scenes
Let me tell you about my friend who runs a small startup He’s not a programmer by trade but he’s been building his entire product using vibe coding approaches
He describes what he wants in plain English and the AI assembles the pieces
It’s not perfect obviously Sometimes the code needs tweaking Sometimes the AI misunderstands his intent
But here’s the thing He’s building software that would have taken him months to learn how to code himself
This is what I mean when I say everything is data as described in the Ten Principles of Vibe Coding
His prompts his intentions his specifications these are becoming the real assets not the temporary code the AI generates
I see people making this mistake though They treat vibe coding like magic They expect to say make me an app and get perfection
That’s not how it works
Good vibe coding requires clear thinking You need to understand what you actually want the system to do
You need to define your interfaces carefully You need to think about how different components will work together
The AI assembles aligned with humans as the principles remind us
We’re still in charge We set the goals We define the boundaries
What I’m finding most interesting is how this changes team dynamics
Suddenly the person who understands the business problem deeply can participate directly in creating solutions
They don’t need to learn programming syntax They just need to articulate their needs clearly
This is that shift toward everyone programs professional governance I keep talking about
The professionals aren’t becoming obsolete Far from it
We need people who understand systems architecture who can design the frameworks within which these AI-assembled components operate
We need people who understand security who can ensure these dynamically created systems remain safe and reliable
The role is changing from writing code to designing systems and governing ecosystems
From software engineering to software ecosystem as the principles put it
Here’s what surprises me though
People who embrace vibe coding completely often produce better systems than those who dip their toes in cautiously
When you fully commit to treating code as capability and intentions as long-term assets something interesting happens
You start thinking differently about your problems
You focus on the what rather than the how
You think about interfaces and contracts and capabilities
You stop worrying about implementation details and start focusing on system behavior
This is where the real power lies
Not in the AI generating code but in us learning to think more clearly about what we actually want to build
The verification and observation are the core of system success principle becomes absolutely critical here
When you’re not writing the code yourself you need even better ways to verify that the system behaves as intended
You need clearer ways to observe what’s actually happening inside these AI-assembled systems
This is the frontier we’re all exploring together
What does it mean to build software when you’re not primarily writing code
What skills become most valuable
How do we ensure reliability in systems that can change their implementation at any moment
These are the questions keeping me up at night
And honestly I’ve never been more excited about programming