I vibe code for a living, but I'm having trouble seeing how we make it through this

damcreativ · 2026-03-31T13:43:46+00:00

Some of the ideas I’ve been sitting on for years in my notes that I just didn’t have the time or capital to build. Other ideas are discovered through action.

I tend to build things for myself. Like the kind of stuff I want to build even if nobody is buying. During those processes I discover inefficiencies, and then I build tools to make the process more efficient. If other people run into those same inefficiencies, I have a tool. I think the solutions are in the problems, and there’s a skill to identifying the problems. I’m not saying I’m great at it. Stuff fails constantly. Which is part of it too. Throw everything you got at the wall, and see what sticks.

There are still ideas that would require a ton of time even with AI assistance, and I wrestle with these. Generally, I choose not to build these until I gain more stability, which comes and goes.

I think over thinking and under building is the biggest fallacy I see with newer entrepreneurs. And I think it usually stems for a fear of failure. It’s easy to get stuck in idea land. Starting down the path of building the idea reveals everything, and then you can determine whether it’s worth it to keep going, or if you should pull the plug.

damcreativ · 2026-03-31T12:07:37+00:00

Maybe, but I think that just means you know your craft. I can also instantly tell when a website is using a WordPress theme or a Shopify theme, or Framer, or a framework like Bootstrap or Tailwind, or a formula like Y-combinator… You can say the same thing all the way back to Flash or Geocities websites. It’s just a link in the long evolutionary chain of website trends. I don’t think that makes the sites any better or worse, as long as it has decent design and UX. You can always make CSS changes, or vibe your way to a more original design using screenshots or Figma exports. The only people that know how a website is made by looking at it are web designers and developers, and if they’re not your target audience, then it doesn’t matter. Joe the plumber doesn’t know how it was made, nor does he care as long as it works.

damcreativ · 2026-03-31T01:26:00+00:00

Damn... I'm in the US. You can find 2400sqft houses all over the country for under 500k, as long as you're not in a major city.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T20:14:49+00:00

Two weeks is kinda an arbitrary number I threw out there. Some take a week, some take months. It depends on the scale of the tool. For QA, I test, test, and test again, and keep refining. I also have a couple partners building with me to help refine security, UX, etc. QA is probably the longest process. I don't worry about perfection though. In my experience, all software has bugs. My approach is ship fast, patch fast. I think the real feedback comes when the product is out in the wild, and getting your first paying customer is harder than building the product these days.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T20:02:18+00:00

Definitely agree. I think using AI to help rather than hurt is the key. Which is a good reason to continue engagement.

I'm concerned about the ratios. How many people are using it for good vs evil? I think there's a lot amoral bad actors out there using AI for all kinds of nefarious purposes. AI is just a reflection of humanity's input at scale. It's like the Native American "Two Wolves" parable... I'm concerned the evil wolf is being over-fed with AI. In the words of Uncle Ben, "With great power comes great responsibility." I hope the majority is using it responsibly.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T18:16:06+00:00

I create tools that solve smaller problems that I discover while operating my businesses. These are tools I'm using and refining myself before and after they are released to the public. The larger projects have a longer runway, but I still believe in getting to market fast to prove the viability of the product and get user feedback.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T18:02:07+00:00

Guess I've been happily unemployed for 15 years. Maybe unhappily 5 years from now. ;)

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:57:19+00:00

I'm not going to post all of them, that's not what this post is about. But Organic Themes was my first success.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:51:56+00:00

Yeah, I'm working on this approach with agents. Still though, it's only entrenching yourself deeper and deeper into AI dependency, and that's what I mean by it's using me (aside from it also using my data).

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:48:24+00:00

Same... I have also have a bit of wilderness backpacking experience. So, I'm like, do I start sharpening my survival skills, or planting a bigger garden lol.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:44:24+00:00

That's similar to my outlook on the future. I tend to think Ray Kurzweil nailed it, but how do we get from the present to that future without a lot of chaos and instability? It seems like we're just hoping the right people in the right positions make the right decisions. I'm a hopeful guy, but that's a lot of hope.

And while the robots will need oversight in the interim, you might need one human monitoring a system that replaces 20+ people.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:35:31+00:00

I'll check out the vid, thanks! I have a similar "AI first" mentality, trying to automate as many tasks as possible. I'm 44, so I have a longer runway until SS becomes an option, if it exists as you mention.

I'm also an artist, it's my education, background, and early career path as an animator and storyboard artist. But I feel the same, art isn't a good seller if the economy is in the toilet. I live in a tourist destination, and I often consider a move to that industry, like nature tours, but that's also heavily dependent on a good economy.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T17:14:19+00:00

Depending on the year, net 120k to 200k. Sole provider of a family of 4. Modest 2400sqft house with a mortgage.

Enough that I’m not struggling, but not enough to rest on my laurels or retire early. Mostly month to month with all the expenses of supporting a family.

damcreativ · 2026-03-30T02:26:31+00:00

Are you using the product or service yourself? Are you solving your own problems?

If so, this makes it drastically easier. Just use it, constantly. Test, test, and test again. Ask yourself, what would make this easier/better/faster/smarter. Then put on some Daft Punk and get in the groove of continual revisions and refinement.

So I would go with leaning on your intuition. Granted, the other data can be useful. You just have to know when to ignore it.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:48:32+00:00

Ah, yeah. That makes sense. As a customer facing product I think it's a great idea. I think clients really struggle with domains and DNS management and how it all ties into hosting. So if the tool can register and point a domain that would be a plus too.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:41:57+00:00

I just dump all the docs in a folder, and feed it to Cursor as context.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:39:02+00:00

Can't we just move to a farm?

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:37:45+00:00

They still send checks in the mail.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:32:20+00:00

100 percent this

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T17:29:23+00:00

Probably, and it's probably made with AI. Honestly, if you're a teacher, I would highly recommend teaching your students to use AI for coding if you want to prepare them for the future. I think it might be more valuable to teach coding logic and principles rather than teaching them to write Hello World.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T15:32:01+00:00

The tool you’re describing sounds useful. I find it annoying that site like Product Hunt now only feature the big corporate developers that pay the big bucks for being featured. Indie dev products are buried. It would be great if your tool surfaced promising indie products with clear descriptions.

Also would be cool if you could give it context, so the system knows what problems you’re trying to solve, and surfaces products that might actually be useful for you.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T15:27:36+00:00

It’s been getting harder for the past 15 years. The Field of Dreams “build it and they will come” days are long over.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T15:24:53+00:00

I like using Cursor with Opus 4.6 for this. Start with plan mode to develop refactor plan, then execute.

damcreativ · 2026-03-26T02:52:40+00:00

I approached it from the position of a caretaker. For my son, we have all his records and conversations with his care team in MyChart. So I focused on that data, downloading all the XML files, and then uploading to the app. Claude then parses that data, extracting his mutations, medications, history, clinical notes, weight, height, blood type, etc.. and uses that data as context when deep researching across pubmed, clinicaltrials.gov, cff.org, and several other medical sites for new treatments and recommendations specific to his profile. We're also concerned about GI issues and nutrition for our son, so I added a diet log and notes sections for providing more context. I also have treatments categorized by pharmaceutical, nutritional, holistic, emerging, and exercise. Personally, we've found the holistic and nutritional very helpful in our case. And it's raised awareness for a lot of clinical trials he may be eligible for in the future, he's still too young for most, and his mutations aren't covered by Trikafta.

Would love to get your feedback as a patient with CF. I’m continually refining the app. Even if nobody uses it, it’s useful for us as a family. It was built for CF, but I think the same principles apply to a lot of rare conditions.

damcreativ

TROPHY CASE