The Vibe Coding Shift

In today’s email:

1. What Vibe Coding is

2. What it means for you and me

3. What I’m building (at lightning speed) with it

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Tools You Should Check Out

First off, here are some of the tools that make vibe coding possible.

I’m eager to find the best tools that can cut down my time. Automating parts of my work has paid dividends over the past decade, and it’s entering a time where so much more is possible.

Here are some tools I recommend checking out

• V0

  • Features: Converts natural language into code and UI, suitable for building landing pages, full-stack apps, and more.

• Cursor

  • Features: AI-powered IDE with features like smart code completion, AI chat for complex code changes, and quick inline code editing.

• Bolt

  • Features: In-browser development with AI-assisted coding and design, one-click deployment to Netlify.

• Replit

  • Features: AI-powered tools for generating apps, intelligent code completion, and interactive AI chat.

• Lovable

  • Features: With Lovable, simply describe your idea in your own words, and watch it transform into a fully functional application with beautiful aesthetics.

• Windsurf

  • Features: Next-generation AI IDE with context awareness, agentic chatbot collaboration, and advanced terminal experience.

• GitHub Copilot

  • Features: AI pair programmer providing contextualized assistance, code completions, and chat assistance in the IDE.

The Exponential Power of Vibe Coding: How Software Development is Changing Forever

After my business degree, I realized I should have gone the software engineering route.

A few years of teaching myself code and it became very apparent that I had acquired (only) a useful add-on skill.

Granted, that’s an incredibly useful skill, and I think everyone should learn the basics.

But it used to be that mastering syntax, studying algorithms, and grinding LeetCode problems was the only path to becoming a great engineer.

Those days are fading fast.

We’re in the middle of an exponential acceleration in how software is built. And if you're not paying attention, you might get left behind.

YC* partners recently surveyed their founders, and the results were staggering:

These aren't non-technical founders. These are highly capable engineers who could write every line of code from scratch—but they’re choosing not to.

Why? Because vibe coding is here, and it’s rewriting the rules of software development.

*Y-Combinator (YC) is a startup accelerator that helps early-stage companies get off the ground.

What is "Vibe Coding"?

The term comes from an AI researcher:

At its core, vibe coding means:

✅ Using AI tools to generate code at unprecedented speeds
✅ Focusing on product vision rather than low-level implementation
✅ Rewriting instead of debugging—because it’s often faster
✅ Parallel development across multiple features simultaneously

A YC founder put it best:

The Great Acceleration: How Fast Are We Moving?

One founder in YC’s current batch captured the shift perfectly:

This isn’t just hype. It’s happening right now:

• Features that once took weeks now take hours.

• Products that took months can be built in days.

• Entire codebases are being scrapped and rewritten rather than debugged.

And that changes everything.

The New Divide: Product Engineers vs. System Architects

This shift is creating two distinct engineering roles:

🚀 Product Engineers ("The Vibe Coders")

These are AI-augmented builders who focus on what to build, not the code itself.

Their superpower? Taste, product sense, and speed.

A YC founder summed it up:

These engineers use AI to:
✅ Rapidly translate ideas into functional products
✅ Prototype at unprecedented speed
✅ Focus on UX and real user needs, not syntax

🛠️ System Architects ("The Deep Thinkers")

While LLMs are great at writing code, they still struggle with debugging and complex systems design.

System architects:
✅ Solve the scalability challenges AI can't yet handle
✅ Design robust infrastructure for long-term growth
✅ Make hard technical decisions that AI can’t automate

We’ve seen this pattern before. Facebook scaled rapidly with PHP, but at a certain point, they needed custom compilers (HipHop) to handle the load.

The middle ground—just being good at writing code—is disappearing.

The Tools Powering the Vibe Coding Revolution

YC founders are already optimizing their workflows with the best AI tools:

🔥 Cursor – The leading AI-powered IDE
🔥 Windsurf – Gaining traction because it auto-indexes your codebase
🔥 Claude Sonnet 3.5 – Popular for general AI coding
🔥 Reasoning Models (Claude 01, 01 Pro, 03) – Better at debugging complex issues
🔥 DeepSeek R1 – Emerging as a viable alternative

What’s not being used much?
❌ Google’s Gemini (except by a few founders for its long context window)
❌ Traditional approaches to writing code

As one YC founder put it:

What This Means For You

If you’re an engineer, founder, or hiring manager, this shift demands a new approach.

🚀 Rethink Your Engineering Strategy

• The best teams aren’t writing code—they’re directing AI to build the right product.

• The skill isn’t syntax. It’s knowing what to build.

🧠 Hire Differently

• Traditional whiteboard interviews are outdated.

• Algorithm-heavy technical screenings miss what actually matters—product sense and AI tooling skills.

• Forward-thinking companies like Stripe have already adopted practical, real-world coding assessments—others will follow.

🎯 Develop Your Prompting Skills

• Being great at AI coding tools is now as fundamental as knowing how to write a for-loop was five years ago.

• The best developers will master directing AI effectively—not just writing code manually.

⚖️ Understand the Tradeoffs

• AI speeds up development but still struggles with debugging and deep system design.

• Scaling still requires human expertise.

The Bottom Line: The Future is Here

This isn’t a short-term trend.

It’s as fundamental a shift as:
✅ The move from assembly to high-level languages
✅ The transition from waterfall to agile development
✅ The rise of cloud computing

Vibe coding is now the default for the fastest-moving teams in tech.

The most successful engineers and founders won’t be the ones who resist it—they’ll be the ones who:
✅ Fully embrace AI-assisted development
✅ Master product sense, taste, and iteration speed
✅ Understand when human expertise is still needed

Because in a world where everyone has access to the same AI tools, the competitive edge will come from asking better questions, having clearer vision, and knowing exactly what to build.

🔥 What’s your experience with AI coding tools? Have you tried (or even heard of) vibe coding, or are you sticking with traditional methods?

Reply to this email—I’d love to hear your perspective.

What I’m Building

This week alone, I’ve spun up two fairly large projects that I would previously been way out of my depths with:

1. An iOS app for my side-project, Progress & Perfection

2. A browser-based tower defense game

Both of these were built entirely using a few prompts and some good ideas.

Is it enough for a working, production-ready deployment? No, but that’s not the point.

The point for me is that it gets me from zero to 1. Actually, it gets me from zero to about 4.

This is a huge deal for engineers, but an even bigger opportunity for people like you and me with a little bit of technical prowess and a whole lot of drive to build, test, automate and grow.

Manus AI Agent

I got into the Beta of Manus AI and have been blown away by how much it will build with very little coaxing.

Let me know if you’d like to hear more about my escapades directing a software engineer agent that’s MUCH smarter than me.

The really exciting thing is that I can keep asking questions when I get stuck or don’t know what to do next. In the case of the iOS app I mentioned above, I’ve never built or submitted one to the App Store, but the agent was easily able to generate step by step instructions for me to follow.

More coming soon on this front…

P.S. Found this valuable? Forward it to a friend who needs to know how AI is transforming software development. They can subscribe here.

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