Vibe coding, the process of creating software with nothing but an agentic AI coding tool, isn’t just bad. It’s genuinely worse than actually learning how to code.
I recently posted this after I had to quickly create a website for a summer camp I was hosting. The aesthetics didn’t really matter, it was just a place to process transactions and store camper info. Realistically, it should’ve been a 1-day job if I had done everything by hand, but instead, it became a frustrating 3-day project that made me almost quit coding.
I spent more time yelling at the agent to do what I wanted since it kept taking the “initiative” to do things I never asked for or didn’t want; changes that only ended up breaking the entire codebase, which I then had to spend even more time fixing and diagnosing.
What started as a tool I used to whip up quick projects at hackathons or prototype my ideas has now become a crutch to help me “ship fast".
I remember when I was younger, looking up YouTube videos and digging through Stack Overflow forums trying to find answers to bugs I was facing, copy-pasting, modifying and editing code until I finally figured it out. It was a frustrating experience, but it taught me so much as a kid. I haven’t learned like that since. Using AI is so easy, and since we’re wired to be “efficient,” we reach for whatever’s closest.
It initially felt so cool being able to whip up full-fledged projects in minutes, but now it just pisses me off. The AI never builds things the way I envision them, and it takes way too long to generate responses (I end up doom scrolling waiting for Copilot agent to finish the changes, hitting enter when necessary). But more importantly, I’m not learning anything. As a young builder with barely any real coding experience, I should be learning fundamentals, reacting to and digesting documentation, and building my technical ability. But nowadays, I’m doing none of that, because I can rely on the AI to do it for me. It’s bad, and I feel terrible for doing it…yet I keep doing it. Like a drug addict or something.
I don't hate AI, but I think the way I’m using it right now isn’t healthy.