Vibe Coding

In sci-fi, everyone seems to know how to work with technology. They're digitally native; they speak to AI systems to get things done. We're heading there with what's often called vibe coding—using AI to build software while focusing on the experience more than the low-level technical details.

In 2025–2026 the pushback from some traditional developers is familiar: "people don't do it the right way." But in platform and audience shifts, the innovators are usually the ones who lean into what's newly possible. When the wave is AI-native IDEs (Cursor, Windsurf, Replit Agent, Bolt, Devin) and generative app platforms (Lovable, v0, Bolt), the move is to experiment and learn by building—not to defend the old workflow as the only valid one.

When you're vibe coding, you focus more on the vibe than the code. You might make simple mistakes because you're focused on the experience. That's a tradeoff. The goal is to connect empathy to user problems first and let AI handle a lot of the technical heavy lifting. Build for the experience; trust that tooling and future AI will help refactor and harden the code. Make building feel like play where you can.

Many traditional developers were trained to optimize for code and architecture, with product and empathy often owned by a PM. That discipline built the stack we have. There's also room for a different kind of builder: one who prioritizes memorable product experiences, clear interactions, and solving user problems with empathy first, code second. Software can feel more like a coherent world—work like a quest, tools like an inventory, results like a win, agents like units you direct, collaborators like a guild. We're moving from "craftspeople who write every line" to directors who orchestrate agents to bring a vision to life.

Quality software is about providing enough value that it outweighs the cost of doing it yourself. Vibe coding removes a lot of technical friction so you can focus on understanding and serving user needs. It's not an excuse for careless code—but it buys time to focus on what matters most: software people actually want to use.

For more, see Deep Research List, AI IDEs, and One-Shot Apps.