Chapter 19: Vibe Coding for Dummies
I hear a lot of podcasters and AI entrepreneurs talking about how anyone can build software without knowing how to code. Let me settle the rumour once and for all. It’s 100% true.
Honestly, I’d encourage everyone to check out vibe coding tools and start messing around. It’s insane what you can build for yourself with AI.
The key word in that paragraph is ‘yourself’. Everyone should try vibe coding, but if you start distributing and selling your work, you ought to have some idea what you’re doing or you could literally ruin people’s lives (you can ruin your own life too but shooting yourself in the foot is perfectly within your rights).
As an intermediate software developer with 2 years of experience, I would say I’m at a point in my career where I know enough about software to know how little I know. That is, I know enough to know how complex and fragile software systems really are.
Remember in 2024 when CrowdStrike brought enterprise and government systems around the world to a screeching halt? Saying “enterprise and government systems” sounds really boring but we’re talking about hospitals, airlines, banks and emergency services AROUND THE WORLD from one messed up file! Boy, would I hate to be the developer who signed off on that.
The software industry is arguably the industry with the least amount of oversight relative to the amount of damage that can be caused by one person. Nobody is going to police you, so you have to police yourself or terrible things can happen.
Like, suppose someone uses the same password on your website that they use for their other accounts (I’ve definitely never done that before…). Then suppose your system gets compromised and the password gets leaked because you neglected to update a package in your app with a known vulnerability. Now, because of your negligence, Stanley Hudson from Scranton, PA can’t retire because a hacker drained all the Bitcoin from his crypto account.
If it sounds like I don't know what I'm talking about, it's because I don't. As I said, I know enough to know how little I know so I have some rules when it comes to vibe coding because I’m deathly afraid of the above situation.
Nathan’s vibe coding rules:
Don’t store sensitive user data in the server without clearly understanding how security is enforced and implemented in your chosen backend framework (i.e. if your app has usernames and passwords you should know how that works and be able to verify it)
Vet EVERY 3rd party dependency before you use it and avoid dependencies unless you really really need it (i.e. don’t trust code from strangers)
Don’t vibe code web-based apps or websites if you don’t know what npm is
Use no-code tools like Shopify or Wix if you don’t know what you’re doing (security is still really important no matter what system you use but no-code in general will make it harder to shoot yourself in the foot than vibe coding)
I realize this is extremely conservative and means that with what I know now, I can basically only distribute native apps that don’t have a backend which typically aren’t super useful or profitable. This will expand as I continue to learn, but I’d rather play it safe now than be the reason why ol' Stanley can’t retire.
Concrete Step #19: Try Vibe Coding
Use vibe coding as an opportunity to start learning about something that was previously unapproachable instead of a reason not to learn anything.