“Just make it work.”
“Copy this snippet.”
“AI will fix it.”
This mindset is quietly destroying a generation of programmers.
Welcome to vibe coding — a way of writing software based on feelings, guesswork, and cargo-cult copying instead of understanding. It looks productive. It feels fast. And in the long run, it kills your career.
This article is not anti-AI, anti-framework, or anti-speed.
It’s anti-mindless programming.
What Is Vibe Coding?
Vibe coding is when you:
- Copy code you don’t understand
- Rely on AI or Stack Overflow as a crutch, not a tool
- Skip reading documentation
- Skip fundamentals
- Judge correctness by “it runs” instead of “it’s correct”
- Debug by random changes instead of reasoning
- Can’t explain why your code works
You are not engineering.
You are assembling vibes.
Why Vibe Coding Feels So Good (At First)
Vibe coding gives you instant dopamine:
- Fast visible results
- No mental strain
- No theory
- No reading
- No deep thinking
You feel productive because something appears on the screen.
But productivity without understanding is debt, not progress.
The Hidden Cost: You Never Build Mental Models
Real programmers don’t memorize syntax.
They build mental models:
- How memory works
- How the call stack works
- How async actually behaves
- How databases store rows
- How networks fail
- How operating systems schedule work
Vibe coders skip all of this.
So when something breaks, they are helpless.
Vibe Coders Cannot Debug — They Panic
Debugging requires:
- Hypothesis
- Observation
- Reasoning
- Elimination
- Understanding of the system
Vibe coders debug like this:
“Let me change random things until it stops crashing.”
This works… until it doesn’t.
When the bug is:
- Non-deterministic
- Race-condition based
- Memory-related
- Performance-related
- Production-only
The vibe coder collapses.
AI + Vibe Coding = Accelerated Skill Decay
AI is powerful.
But AI + no fundamentals is dangerous.
If you:
- Ask AI for everything
- Paste answers blindly
- Never verify logic
- Never test edge cases
- Never read generated code carefully
Then AI is not helping you.
It is replacing your thinking, not augmenting it.
You become slower, weaker, and dependent — not stronger.
Why Companies Eventually Reject Vibe Coders
At junior level, vibe coding might pass.
At mid-level? Problems appear.
At senior level? You are exposed instantly.
Companies need engineers who:
- Can reason under uncertainty
- Can design systems
- Can debug production failures
- Can explain trade-offs
- Can read unfamiliar codebases
- Can make decisions without tutorials
Vibe coders cannot do this.
They plateau early — usually permanently.
Vibe Coding Creates “Framework Prisoners”
Vibe coders often know:
- One framework
- One stack
- One workflow
Remove the framework, and they are lost.
Ask them to:
- Write raw SQL
- Use plain HTTP
- Debug memory
- Read a compiler error deeply
- Explain time/space complexity
Silence.
Frameworks should sit on top of fundamentals — not replace them.
The Brutal Truth: Vibe Coders Are Replaceable
If your value is:
- Assembling tutorials
- Copying patterns
- Gluing libraries
- Prompting AI
Then you are competing with:
- Cheaper developers
- Better AI
- No-code tools
And you will lose.
The only defensible skill is understanding.
What Real Programming Looks Like
Real programming is slower.
Harder.
Mentally exhausting.
It involves:
- Reading specs
- Studying internals
- Tracing execution
- Writing tests
- Refactoring mercilessly
- Saying “I don’t know” — then finding out
It’s not glamorous.
But it compounds.
How to Escape the Vibe Coding Trap
If this article made you uncomfortable — good.
Here’s how to fix it:
- Read documentation (not summaries)
- Learn one language deeply
- Understand memory, not just syntax
- Build small things from scratch
- Debug with a debugger
- Write without AI sometimes
- Explain your code out loud
- Study how tools work internally
Speed comes after understanding — never before.
Final Thought
Vibe coding is not a phase.
It is a career ceiling.
You can choose:
- Comfort now, stagnation later or
- Pain now, mastery later
Programming is not about vibes.
It is about thinking clearly in systems that fight back.
Choose wisely.
Top comments (0)