Vibe Coding
I have been teaching myself to vibe code.
Back in 2009 I posted a simple Mandelbrot fractal viewer on the web: a single HTML file with inline Javascript. Just 329 lines of code, each pixel a tiny table cell. Click to zoom. Watch it iterate. That was about it!
I have wondered if improving the page could raise it in the Google rankings, so I have been using code LMs to make a number of improvements....
Two Kinds of Vibe Coding
There are two categories of vibe coding. One is when you delegate little tasks to a coding LM while keeping yourself as the human "real programmer" fully informed and in control.
The second type of vibe coding is what I am interested in. It is when you use a coding agent to build towers of complexity that go beyond what you have time to understand in any detail. I am interested in what it means to cede cognitive control to an AI. My friend David Maymudes has been building some serious software that way, and he compares the second type of vibe coding to managing a big software team. Like the stories you've heard of whole startups being created completely out of one person vibe coding.
When my students describe their own vibe coding, it sounds like the first kind. That is also how I started with my Mandelbrot project, pasting little algorithm nuggets into my code while I edited each function, making all the key decisions using my own human judgement.
But in the last couple weeks I have put on the blinders. I have resolved to stop looking at all the code in detail anymore. Instead, I am pushing the agent to write a ton of code, make its own decisions, to hell with the complexity. I have been experimenting with the second kind of vibe.
It is working surprisingly well, and I have been thinking about my experience handing the reins to an AI agent. The workflow may presage the use of generative AI across other industries. And I have arrived at two basic rules for vibe coders.
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