Vibes Fade, Knowledge Lasts: The Case Against Lazy Coding Culture¶

Every time I scroll through my Twitter feed lately, I'm bombarded with content celebrating "vibe coding" – the idea that you don't need deep technical knowledge anymore, just the right "vibes" and an LLM to generate your code.

Something about this trend doesn't sit right with me.

It's not professional jealousy. As someone who uses AI coding tools daily, I recognize their transformative potential. Rather, it's the underlying philosophy that troubles me – the casual dismissal of accumulated knowledge and the experts who built it.

While watching the anime Orb: On the Movements of the Earth recently, I had an epiphany about what specifically bothers me about vibe coding culture.

The Shoulders of Giants vs. The Vibes¶

The show depicts scientists in the 1500s secretly passing down information about heliocentrism – the understanding that Earth revolves around the Sun.

What struck me was the profound humility of these characters:

"I couldn't have done this alone; the people before me were invaluable. I may not have been able to prove it myself, but maybe the next generation will."

This reverence for accumulated knowledge stands in stark contrast to what I hear from many vibe coders:

• "You don't need to read programming books"
• "You don't need to understand the code"
• "You don't need to learn from experts"

There's a troubling dismissal of those who came before us – the developers who spent decades refining the very knowledge that powers these AI tools.

Where Vibe Coding Falls Short¶

After working on numerous complex projects, I've identified two critical limitations of the vibe-only approach:

1. Complexity Quickly Outpaces Vibes¶

As projects grow in complexity, LLMs struggle to generate appropriate solutions, especially when:

• Tracking intricate data relationships
• Implementing proper security measures
• Building systems that scale reliably
• Debugging subtle, context-dependent issues

Weekend projects? Sure.

Production systems handling sensitive user data? That's where the "vibes" approach starts to show dangerous cracks.

2. The Knowledge Ceiling¶

If you only let the LLM do your thinking, you'll be permanently capped at its capabilities.

Without understanding the underlying technology, you don't know what to ask for.

This creates a fundamental limitation – you can only go as far as your prompting skills allow, which is invariably less far than someone who also understands what's happening under the hood.

The Personal Experience: Beyond Vibes¶

I've experienced this firsthand.

Sometimes I fall into a rut of letting AI code for me without developing my understanding of the tech stack or problem domain.

Progress happens, but it's superficial.

Then I'll spend a day deeply engaging with the problem – taking notes, drawing diagrams, reading documentation and blog posts from experts.

The progress I make after this concentrated learning dwarfs what I accomplished in "vibe mode."

When I return to using AI assistance after this deep learning, the quality of both my prompts and the resulting code improves dramatically.

The AI becomes a force multiplier for my knowledge rather than a replacement for it.

Finding Balance: Knowledge-Augmented AI Coding¶

To be clear, I'm not advocating against using AI coding tools.

I use them daily, and they've revolutionized my workflow. But I've found the most powerful approach combines:

1. Fundamental knowledge of data structures, algorithms, and system design
2. Tech stack familiarity with the frameworks and tools you're using
3. AI assistance to accelerate implementation and explore alternatives
4. Learning from experts through books, blogs, and communities

This hybrid approach gives you the best of both worlds – the speed and exploration capabilities of AI with the depth and judgment that come from real understanding.

The Humility of Learning¶

Perhaps what bothers me most about extreme vibe coding culture is the lack of humility.

There's a certain irony in declaring yourself superior to traditional developers while relying entirely on tools built by those same developers.

We shouldn't forget that the most innovative people at companies like Anthropic and OpenAI – those pushing AI forward – are themselves deeply knowledgeable engineers who understand the systems they're building.

As the anime reminded me, progress in any field comes from acknowledging that we stand on the shoulders of giants.

True mastery doesn't come from bypassing fundamental knowledge but from building upon it.

A Call for Balanced Progress¶

I believe everyone should embrace AI coding tools – they're changing our industry in remarkable ways. But I also want to see more humility in how we approach this technology.

The most powerful developers of the future won't be those who relied exclusively on AI, nor those who rejected it entirely.

They'll be the ones who:

• Leverage AI to accelerate their workflow
• Continue deepening their fundamental knowledge
• Learn from experts past and present
• Understand when to trust the AI and when to question it

Vibes might get you started, but knowledge is what lasts.

Want to stay updated on more content like this? Subscribe to my newsletter below.