Alright, digital architects and code-slingers, let's talk about the latest shiny object distracting developers: "Vibe Coding." You know the drill – punch in a prompt, let the AI genie do its thing, and poof! Instant code. It sounds like magic, doesn't it? A quick shortcut to coding nirvana, bypassing all those pesky, complicated concepts. But as someone who's seen a few trends come and go (and lived to tell the tale), I have some thoughts.
On one hand, I get it. Vibe coding, powered by AI, can feel incredibly empowering. Need a quick snippet? Don't want to get bogged down in boilerplate? This digital assistant is ready to serve. It's like having a hyper-efficient, slightly eccentric apprentice who can get you something up and running in seconds. And for that, I can't deny its utility.
But here's where my more cynical side starts to twitch. My first mentor, Barns (bless his old-school, no-nonsense heart), had one golden rule: "Never, EVER copy code without understanding it." He'd seen more broken dreams than a bad internet connection from developers who'd merely copy-pasted from Stack Overflow without a second thought. And honestly, platforms like CodePen, where you can actually play with code, break it, fix it, and understand its guts, are worth their weight in gold for that very reason.
Now, here's my biggest concern, and brace yourselves, because I'm about to ruffle some feathers. I'm seeing a worrying trend where our brilliant junior developers are becoming less effective, not because they lack raw talent, but because these powerful tools enable them to float through complex concepts without ever truly grappling with them.
Think about the "React/Angular/Vue era" juniors. They're phenomenal within their chosen framework, able to spin up impressive applications. Huzzah! It truly takes a lot of pain out of building advanced UIs. But then, ask them to bend the framework's restrictions, or build something truly custom, something outside the pre-defined magical box? Blank stares. Meanwhile, those of us who've wrestled with pure JavaScript, who've painstakingly built frameworks from the ground up, have a foundational understanding that gives us the upper hand. We know how the magic works because we helped invent it. AI and "vibe coding" are doing the exact same thing: creating a generation of talented practitioners who might just be a little too disconnected from the underlying principles.
For us seniors, AI is a different beast entirely. Yes, let's skip the mind-numbing boilerplate. Let's ask it to write something simple that we can then expertly build upon. "Hey AI, make me a div where the inner cards fade in, stay for 10 seconds, then fade out, and the next one fades in." It'll likely spit out workable code. Fantastic!
BUT – and this is a colossal "BUT" – do you truly understand what it just gave you? If the colors are off, or the fade is slightly wrong, or you just want to add a tiny extra flourish, do you then ask the AI to fix it? The answer, my friends, is a resounding NO. It's like asking a genie to repaint your house every time you want to move a picture frame. It'll just try to rebuild the whole damn thing, often tweaking perfectly working foundations or, even worse, hallucinating something bizarre that doesn't even compile. You tell it, "That doesn't work!" and it'll meekly agree, "Oh, my apologies!" And then you're left staring at the screen, muttering, "Well then, why in the hell did you spit it out the first time, you digital charlatan?!"
That, my friends, is where the "vibe" ends and the real coding begins for seniors. We take that initial prompt response, critically analyze it, and then adapt it to our specific needs. That's how AI truly empowers us: as a super-fast scaffolding builder, not a replacement architect.
Okay, perhaps I sound like an old man yelling at clouds. Am I just a hater of all things trendy? Possibly. Don't get me wrong, I love to see stupid internet shenanigans as much as the next person. But sometimes, these "trends" impact an industry far more than their original intent. I'm pretty sure "vibe coding" started as a joke, a fun little experiment. But now? I'm seeing founders dropping entire dev teams in the ignorant hope that they can "vibe code" their way to better software. Let me tell you, that's pure, utter nonsense.
It's déjà vu all over again! Remember the "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editors and those tools that promised to make us developers obsolete? "Your jobs are done!" they screamed. Well, here we are. Even if AI can churn out decent code, who is building the tools to help the AI? Who is fixing its hallucinations? Developers. We shift, adapt, and ultimately create more tech.
Even if AI takes some of the junior-level coding tasks – and this is a big "if" – that could be a good thing, right? It could force juniors to build their basic knowledge, to truly understand concepts and fundamentals, and then learn to be better than the tool. How many times have I seen juniors just "get something out there," only for the client to have to hire someone else to clean up the ensuing digital mess?
Don't get me wrong, AI is fantastic for an MVP, a Version 1, a beta release. It's a powerful accelerant for initial prototypes. But creating an entire dev department from one prompt? Haha, good luck with that! The future of development still needs our brains, our creativity, and yes, our ability to understand why the darn div is still there when it should have faded out.
Written by Matthew Betts
