"Vibe Coding: Think Slow, Cultivate Taste, and Build Fast"

6 min read Original article ↗

Vibe coding is the next evolution of Prompt Engineering, when you instruct your AI Agents to run autonomously. The best example is Claude Code, but there are more.

# When Vibe Coding Works Best

Vibe coding is best when you have a framework around it. This is what we had with Data Warehouse Automation tools, and e.g., dbt.

We need to bring that back. Or like I use with GoHugo, it’s a predefined framework with rules and governance, so the LLM is very good at adding things, versus starting from Scratch.

Simon Whiteley with Advancing Analytics building something called LakeForge, which is essentially that too. The framework is the Declarative Data Stack, if it’s all code, the better. And LLMs can then extend and enhance.

It’s similar to Spec Driven Development (SDD), where we write our instructions in claude.md and Claude or any AI Agents implement them. Also, what Esco Obong said what they do at Airbnb, the hard part is coming up with the spec, talking to business, etc. The Coding part is small.

# Using an Existing Framework

I think a framework with clear rules and guardrails, like the declarative data stack, works best with agents, such as my website built with GoHugo. Building one from Scratch, AI is terrible at it (at least from a maintainability perspective), but from an existing Hugo setup, amazing.

I wrote a little more about « Data Modeling for the Agentic Era: Semantics, Speed, and Stewardship», which applies to any agent’s project, not just data modeling.

# Should We All Build Right Now?

I think. If you’re building right now. You should go hard all-in on what’s happening right now. Raphael Schaad. Tweet

Building, or just prompting? Not sure if that will lead us to a good place. To build for ourselves, sure, it’s fun. But for professional services, not so sure, yet.

But also, if you don’t use it, you get FOMO, and fear of being too slow.

# Craftmanship and 10x Developers

Is craftsmanship gone with AI? This excellent video goes into it: you can build something on demand, but you have no attachment to what you’ve built. So how are you gonna sell or rave about something you don’t even have any connection to? No hardship, no challenges, no learnings with AI.

Watch the video of I was a 10x engineer. Now I’m useless, or read Vibe coding and the death of craftsmanship.

This was also the message of PewDiePie’s video, Trains his own model, that he struggled so much that he learned so much. With vibe coding on auto-pilot, this is going away, fast.

# Vibe Coding Makes You Exhausted

AI making you Exhausted and potentially addicted. They makes us lazy. They make us do the Shallow Work, instad of the Deep Work.


Great example: Generating an email that we sent do an actual human being | Source: AI Written, AI Read cartoon - Marketoonist | Tom Fishburne

# Soulless

AI agents don’t have souls, they have no characters. What’s the kick, the fun, the joy of it? This is also my take on Will AI Replace Human Thinking?, and how it is powerful and distractive at the same time, but lacking any depth.

# Shallow Work and Cost

Always be careful on Shallow Work vs real work you’re outsourcing to agents. Also highly related, Jevons Paradox, where the total cost of AI, because of everyone using it, is rising.

# Will Vibe Code Replace Actual Programmers?

Some even say vibe coding is killing open source - see How Vibe Coding Is Killing Open Source that says:

Generative AI is changing how software is produced and used. In vibe coding, an AI agent builds software by selecting and assembling open-source software (OSS), often without users directly reading documentation, reporting bugs, or otherwise engaging with maintainers. We study the equilibrium effects of vibe coding on the OSS ecosystem. (check its Whitepaper)

Read more at Will AI Replace Human Thinking.

# Code Review in Times of AI

More than replacing, which is not the case any time soon, is the question of how to Code Review that can keep up with the amount of code that can be produced in minutes.

More on Code Review in Times of AI.

# How to Code with AI?

See How to Code with AI.

See Vibe Code Agents and AI IDE and AI Orchestrators.

# Thinking Slow: Cultivate Taste

As Daniel Kahneman said in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, it might happen the same to working with AI, but with «Building Fast, Thinking Slow».

Another way of saying the same would be to create taste, you need to think and Slow down - Kepano says:

Taste is a study of nuance, it requires slowing down. Kepano, LinkedIn

Additional layer of Coding makes us slower, not faster

Apenwarr says on his blog about Every layer of review makes you 10x slower.

# Shipping and Figuring it out

Built a full CRUD app in 40 minutes last week. Spent three hours the next day figuring out what it actually did. PromptSlinger

Yes! What happens to me is that the thinking is before, I use the plan mode and go forth and back extensively. And then what it builds, I “usually” understand if it’s a project of mine (not from scratch, but with the framework) and Claude built what I wanted.

But I think that’s only possible where I know the things.

What do you think?

# What’s the Future?

I think the Future with Generative AI, is “having taste”.

# Vibe Coding Example

# Upgrading My Project Requirements with Claude Code

I upgraded an old project of mine, practical.ssp.sh, with Claude Code, which is so cool, as you don’t need to do the hard work, and it just upgrades. On the other hand, I have no clue if all the changes it’s done are correct.

Sure, I can run the pipeline and assess more or less, if it still works. But all the details I’ve built with 100s of hours before, are they respected, or just ignored?

I pushed the PR to look at the changes later. I have almost no desire to look at it, although it’s so cool to see the latest version, quickly migrating from MinIO to SeaweedFS and adding back old steps.

But I didn’t learn anything. It’s fun, and not so fun at the same time. Very weird.

# Email Client for Markdown in the Terminal with Neovim

Neomd, a TUI for email reading in Markdown and writing in Neovim, fully vibe coded with heavily instructions from me.

# Further Reads

Origin: LakeForge, Tweet