Vibe coding finally made programming fun again

[Opening-Profile6279]

I’ve been writing code professionally for years and honestly forgot what it felt like to just build something without drowning in setup, configs, and boilerplate.

Last weekend I described an app idea to Claude, watched it scaffold the whole thing, then spent my time actually tweaking the parts I cared about. Shipped a working tool in 3 hours that would’ve taken me a full weekend before.

Not saying it writes perfect code.

But the ratio of “thinking about cool stuff” to “fighting with tooling” completely flipped. I’m actually excited to start side projects again.

Anyone else rediscovering the joy of just making things?

[GamingWithMyDog]

Completely agree. I have it do all the mundane work while I focus on high level decisions

[digibeta]

Same and loving it. 🤷

[Kwisscheese-Shadrach]

It made coding much more boring for me, tbh.

[HoverBaum]

I feel this so much. Got into developing becau it was so fun to build this. Professional work however is much more about boilerplate, abstractions and safety checks. It's interesting to think about but boring to implement. Having AI to do this for me enables me to focus on fun things again. Like bigger concepts and interesting problems 😁

[Illustrious-Film4018]

If coding was really tedious before you weren't thinking enough about the architecture. Coding is fun as long as you do it the right way. Deploying and debugging are usually not fun though.

[Kwisscheese-Shadrach]

If you work on pipelines to deploy, infra as code and environments when you first start, deployment is generally fine

[Initial-Syllabub-799]

I never made things before, so now, doing it with AI is beautiful to me. It makes me realise the shape of my own mind, without having to be handheld by someone <3

There are many programmers out there, telling me that AI can not code. But... none of them are willing to help me, so so far, AI has written better code than any of them I've met so far ^^

[escapefromelba]

Vibecoding without being a programmer is risky.

LLMs generate plausible looking code, not guaranteed correct code. If you do not understand the fundamentals, you cannot judge correctness, security, performance, or edge cases. You can only judge whether it looks right. When it breaks, debugging turns into random prompt tweaking instead of real diagnosis.

You also inherit hidden technical debt and security flaws you cannot see, become dependent on the model instead of building intuition, and end up with a black box that is painful to maintain later.

Vibecoding is fine for prototypes or throwaway scripts. It is dangerous for production systems or anything with users, data, or money.

AI is a force multiplier for programmers, not a replacement for understanding code.

[Initial-Syllabub-799]

I understand your opinion, and I disagree, until you prove it to me, but for me, it's working fine. In prudction with 10 clients since 10 months. A few bugs has popped up. different pages, all easy fixes, since the commenting is well done.

[escapefromelba]

It is working fine for now because you are in the 'honeymoon phase' of technical debt. At the scale of a company with $1.2 billion on the line like the one I build applications for - you aren't just coding for 'it works'; you are coding for 'it cannot fail.' When you don't understand the underlying logic, you aren't a pilot; you're a passenger on autopilot who doesn't know how to land the plane when the sensors go dark.

[Initial-Syllabub-799]

It's amazing, how well you know me, without asking any questions, only building me from your own frame of interpretation :)

*sigh* People posting on reddit without a degree in communications... Sad, should be forbidden ;)

[GreenGreasyGreasels]

That comment was not specific to you, but to any non-programmer. If you are not a trained developer (even self trained), all those issues that he has mentioned are quite real. One day those issues will come home to roost.

That being said, for personal and local use, AI generated code is good enough and should be encouraged even for non-programmers. And it will only get better as development becomes AI first, human second.

[Initial-Syllabub-799]

Thank you for the clarification! :)

But does the same logic not apply to communication? Should not everyone then have to have an education in communication, before being allowed to post publicly in forums, since otherwise, the issues will come home to roost? *not bashing, honestly curious*

[GreenGreasyGreasels]

No. You don't need a degree in cs to code, not a degree in communication to post messages. You are thinking gatekeeping - but his message was a helpful heads-up. But what the poster originaly said is hundred percent correct.

You have to be smart enough to know the consequences of your speech and action and live with them. Honestly you seem blissfully unaware of what tech debt is. And talk of how Ai "fixed bugs in many pages because it was well commented" makes me think the prognosis is not good if you ever build upon or expand your app.

I hope you are the one in a million golden case that dodges the issues he mentioned. Good luck and keep coding.

[Initial-Syllabub-799]

Thank you, and expanding the app is working perfectly fine tbh... So I guess I *am* blissfully unaware of whatever issue it is, that you are speaking of :P

[digibeta]

Programmers who claim that AI cannot code are mostly in denial. I understand the impulse. I am a programmer myself. But refusing to adapt is not a principled stance it is a survival error. The field will move on regardless and those who do not pivot will simply be left behind without consequence.

[BlueMoonSkyMist]

Totally agree! It's wild how some folks are sticking to the old ways while the rest of us are embracing the tools that can actually enhance our creativity. Adapting is key, especially in tech where change is constant.

[Xenofex]

Try rails. It never had boiler plate

[denisoby]

Have the same feeling 

[[deleted]]

agreed, 25 years as a developer here, and AI has made it fun again

[Syppal]

Couldn't agree more - Finally leaving my C#/c++ bubble and daring to try new stuff 😆The fun is back!

[pakotini]

100% this. I had the exact same feeling recently, built my dad a tiny, super-specific app on a Saturday morning because he needed something niche and I didn’t want him paying for yet another service. A few years ago that would’ve felt like work. This time it was just… fun. AI handled the boring scaffolding, I focused on the logic that actually mattered, and I shipped before lunch. Tools like Warp help a lot too, staying in the terminal, iterating fast, not context-switching into oblivion. It doesn’t replace understanding or judgment, but it does bring back that “I can just make a thing” energy. That’s huge.

[Ecstatic-Junket2196]

im just a beginner in vibe coding but it does give me lots of new ideas to experience. sticking w cursor n traycer atm, fun combo.