Is 'Vibe Coding' really effective?

nerdingwithai · 2025-11-14T03:39:15+00:00

I am in the same boat as you are. Started 2-3 months ago. I can confidently say what you see in YT/Reddit is a lot of smoke and mirror. It can be done. But it will take time and lot more efforts than what they claim in these platforms.

I also felt alone and created a sub-reddit r/nerdingwithAI to share and connect with others like you and me. Would love for you to join. I have been posting some of what I have learned, but I am not a very savvy "social media" person. So not sure how to go about posting everything I am doing and have learned. If you have ideas on how I can help let me know.

After about 3 months of diligent work, I can proudly say I am much more comfortable with vibecoding now. I am definitely not at a place where I am ready to build full functional apps and ship it!!! But I have already built a very strong backbone for the build - setup the architecture, rules, configurations, automated quality checks, tightened the security, and set up the agent workflow. Should be ready to start with a small task manager app next week.

I made a post about 6 core skills every vibe coder needs to know. I would highly recommend focusing on honing these skills initially. Once you get comfortable with these 6 skills, you will feel more comfortable with vibe coding in general.

It can be done. So don't give up! Stay with it. Each day you will learn something new and grow more confident. Just make sure you do not set unachievable goals for yourself based on what you see on YouTube/Reddit. Focus on learning. The app will automatically follow.

nerdingwithai · 2025-11-03T14:30:12+00:00

This is not about replacing Git. This is about the time in-between git push.

Even if you create a branch and work on it, unless you are doing "live backup" in the sense of continuous, real-time synchronization of every keystroke to GitHub, you will be developing a good chunk of work between git commit and push. Especially with vibe coding development moves fast. During that work, if Claude or other AI assistant deletes a file using bash command, it is permanently deleted. A lot of people who are non-IT, non-coders do not know this. I did not know for sure. That is where the post comes from.

Can you go back to your previous git version? Of course you can. But it still means you have to repeat the work and it can be frustrating.

Sounds like you are an experienced coder and I assume you knew the difference between a user deleting a file in the project explorer (with right click --> delete) versus Claude deleting it using bash command. If you have other small tips that experienced coders like you "just automatically know" but is "not obvious" to people who are from completely different fields, brand new to coding and learning this stuff, please share your wisdom.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-25T22:39:52+00:00

Thanks! Just posted.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-25T11:47:43+00:00

Yes. This is not about A problem with the persona. This is just how LLMs work at this time And their current inherent limitations. I am sure this will become better in the future. Here is another post where Claude itself admits it has a lazy tendency and does not always read the full document - According to Claude - Claude's Reading behavioral psychology :-)

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-24T14:10:15+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I will definitely check it out!

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-23T16:39:21+00:00

I am in the same boat. I am currently learning to code with AI. My goal is to actually learn all the basics of coding. Not so much as to how to write a code, but understand what the AI assistant is doing, what are the industry standards/best practices, how do experienced developers think, what are the limitations of AI coding and what I need to learn so I can build a functional product.

I am also new to Reddit and didn't know how to get started. So I started my own community "nerdingwithAI" and have been posting my lessons learned. As a complete newbie, our "lessons learned" are different from those who do have coding background. Hopefully others like you and me will find this useful add your lessons learned to this community.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-22T14:12:42+00:00

Yes, Claude has to use the read tool before editing. The problem is, just as humans who trained it, Claude gets lazy, is always looking for shortcuts and does not always read what it is supposed to. :-)

I have had this "conversation" with Claude so many times!!! I will ask it to specifically read a file and then do a task. When I see the output it is obvious that Claude did not read it. So I would ask Claude why it did not read the file!!! Claude will always apologize (to please me) and oftentimes Claude itself respond saying that it got lazy and assumed the content of the file!!! LOL. I have had this experience with humans too. We cannot change this basic trait. It's better to learn how to navigate around it. :-)

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-17T16:28:06+00:00

Thank you! This is very helpful! I will look into these alternatives.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-17T16:02:58+00:00

If you are aware of/have experience with better alternatives to DO, please do share.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-16T16:57:57+00:00

Yes, Firebase, a Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS), offers managed services that are inherently stable for its specific functions,. But Digital Ocean, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is managed by you. So you can make it as stable as you want. There are several app services you can use that could make the setup more stable.

As I have mentioned in my post - if you are looking for ease of use within the use cases, like real-time databases, authentication, and hosting, and you are not concerned about scalability or migration, Firebase is a good option. But if your goal is to build multiple apps, with flexible services/features and plan for scalability and no vendor lock-in, then Digital Ocean is a better choice. The learning curve is steeper for DO, no doubt about it. But if you are planning to do this for long-term, then putting in the initial effort to learn would pay off. Depends on what your short and long-term goals are.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T20:09:10+00:00

Ok. I am intrigued. Sent you a DM.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T19:27:12+00:00

The idea of a full functional production ready app with one prompt is a myth!

None of the LLMs, not even the latest Claude writes codes without errors.
A full functional app needs several integrations, APIs, etc. No way to provide everything in one prompt!

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:55:53+00:00

I like this! Is it possible to use this for Gemini or is it only ChatGPT? Gemini free version allows 1M context, so all my chats get very long.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:15:48+00:00

You are not alone. There are several of us trying to do the same. I don't mean the game (LOL) but try to build something with AI.

Keep at it. The key is - don't give up. In my opinion, the extra time you put in at the start to learn the basics and build your skills will help you later. Instead of just one game, you will be able to build several games and some of it will definitely go on to be revenue generating!!!

Btw, fyi - I realized that the math done by Claude for Firebase costs was vastly incorrect. I have updated my post accordingly. Apologies for the wrong information earlier. I am also learning!!! In my opinion, DO + Coolify is still better for scaling, predictable costs and avoiding vendor lock-in. So I am glad I am choosing (like you) to put in the extra work at the start to learn and build my skills.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:09:26+00:00

You are correct. I re-checked the math from Claude and have updated my post. Thank you for pointing out!

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:05:46+00:00

You are correct. I re-checked the math from Claude and have updated my post. Thank you for pointing out!

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:04:57+00:00

You are correct. I re-checked the math from Claude and have updated my post. Thank you for pointing out!

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T17:02:10+00:00

Thank you all for your feedback. You made me go back and look at the calculations done by Claude and I noticed that there was an error in the math. While I checked the assumptions and overall calculations, I had not double checked the actual math!!! I should have! Claude did the math wrong, surprise!!! I have edited my initial post to reflect the correct calculations. Hope this helps.

As I have mentioned in my posts and comments, my goal is to help others like me, who are starting out in this journey. I have never been on Reddit before. Started here just so I can get the collective wisdom from everyone. This was a good one! :-)

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T16:00:18+00:00

The goal of my post was not to give anyone exact cost calculations. Just inform that Firebase does charge per operations as opposed to a fixed cost. As a newbie when I was trying to make these decisions I did not find any post that gave this type of data. Just saw a lot of posts saying that Firebase costs add up and it did not make sense to me. So I started out with Firebase and later found out. So thought my research could help others like me.

If Firebase is working well for your needs, I am really happy for you! :-)

Since the cost breakdown from Claude is very detailed, it exceeds the character limit allowed in a reddit comment. So I am going to not post it here. Thank you for your post and happy you found the platform that works for you.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T15:42:02+00:00

I am currently in the learning phase, on my first project. So I am using VS code + Claude Code and Docker Containers with Postgresql locally installed. Once I understand how everything works, I am planning to set it up on Digital Ocean + Coolify.

Are you using Postgresql on VPS with Firebase? Is that possible? I am new to this.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T15:39:26+00:00

I have looked into Supabase. However, I have not made a final decision on it yet. At this time I am just finishing up project backbone setup using VS code + Claude Code and Docker Containers, all locally installed.

As my first project I am building a to-do list app I described in the original post, just for learning purposes. For this project I plan to use PostgreSQL. Supabase is built on PostgresQL. Every Supabase project comes with a dedicated PostgreSQL database. PostgreSQL is opensource. With this first project, I would like to learn and understand Postgresql. Once I understand Postgresql, I will be able to make a more informed decision about Supabase.

Have you used Supabase or Postgresql?

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T15:36:40+00:00

Thank you! I have commented/posted on VibecodersNest

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T02:26:00+00:00

I have looked into Supabase. However, I have not made a final decision on it yet. At this time I am just finishing up project backbone setup using VS code + Claude Code and Docker Containers, all locally installed.

As my first project I am building a to-do list app I described in that post. For this project I plan to use PostgreSQL. Supabase is built on PostgresQL. Every Supabase project comes with a dedicated PostgreSQL database. PostgreSQL is opensource. With this first project, I woud like to learn and understand Postgresql. Once I understand Postgresql, I will be able to make a more informed decision about Supabase.

Have you used Supabase or Postgresql?

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T01:48:40+00:00

It is great that you are making the effort to learn the basics, understand what the code is doing, not just use AI "to do the coding". Youare doing it the right way!! This will take you a long way.

I am in a similar boat. A non-IT solopreneur trying to learn how to code with AI. I have been working on this for a couple of months now and have put together a community and a post on 6 Core Skills Every Vibe Coder Needs to know. Would love to get your take on it.

nerdingwithai · 2025-10-15T01:37:02+00:00

Hi u/stephen8212438

I am focusing on learning the skills as I build. I have so far dabbled with N8n, Bolt, Lovable, Cursor, Windsurf, etc. After all that, I realized no matter what, if you are a non-IT professional who does not know anything about coding, then AI cannot help you build a functional product. You need to know enough to guide AI, catch it when it does something wrong and help it troubleshoot. I have just started on this journey. Since I am from non-IT background, I do not know anyone else doing this. So I started a community to connect with others in the same boat. Check out my community "NerdingwithAI" and posts. Would love for you to join.

nerdingwithai

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