So, you want to use AI to code stuff, but you’re kinda scared about doing something really really wrong? From a software engineer to you, 10 tips so that you don’t die by ai-generated bugs
This was fascinating despite not having any intentions to vibecode 😄
Love how accessible you made this post for beginners!
You know, the way you feel about vibecoding is how I’ve been feeling about software engineers (and billionaires with no qualifications) getting interested in manufacturing and making hardware or robots. I’ve been meaning to write a post about why innovation in manufacturing is much harder than in tech. The difference is just that people are gonna die if software engineers program hardware the same way they do software or (oh the horrors) start letting AI program robots and production machines. That’s become even more scary to me after reading this post and learning how chaotic AI programming is.
I’ve recently seen David Perrell talk about a factory where the production robots learn from each other and change their code when they learn something new and just thought ‘they better not be doing this because that sounds insanely dangerous’ but I think it represents well how different the manufacturing world is from people’s perception of it. And that seems to be similar in software.
Now I’m worried that executives with no clue will decide to suddenly let AI write all the code without knowing the dangers and the whole internet is gonna become mayhem 😅
Oh my goodness, software engineers and robotics are so scary! We've come a long way from nerds playing with cables to something resembling engineering, but we're nowhere near the level of precision and safety needed for actual world interactions. It's always baffling to me that we managed to get all banking online for example, that is so unsafe and prone to error!
As someone who simultaneously wants to stick her head in the sand and hope AI goes away while also thinking hmm I need to sign up for Cursor, I learned so much from this post! You made a technically complex topic really accessible. Thank you!
Depending on your comfort around coding environments (I dove into Cursor without Rose's cautions :-), Googles Studio, ai.dev, could be a place to tinker around with if you are doing basic HTML pages. I did get to bring to life many ideas that have been noodling for a while and appreciate Cursor/Windsurf (competitor)
I'm so happy you found it useful! Cursor can seem a bit daunting if you're not used to IDEs and programmer tools, but it's really one of the best if you want to build something substantial. You can go very far with ChatGPT or Claude already though, so it's worth trying them out if you already have a plan with them.
Oops, I deleted my original comment because it’s answered in the footnotes. Thanks for writing this! CS50 has been on my to learn list since COVID days and I’m taking this as a sign to get started 😂
footnotes are my preferred means of expression ahah!
I'm glad CS50 is on your list. To be completely honest, i didn't do it myself since i was already at uni for the same stuff, but i've looked over the curriculum and it's acknowledged as one of the best "overall introduction" package by the industry!
Rose, this was such a fantastic post - pertinent, important, accessible. Each was a lesson I wanted to pass along to the kid who says "I can do that now with AI".
I used to have this rule - to think outside the box, you have to FIRST UNDERSTAND THE BOX.
My dream scenario is that this kind of AI gets into the hands of kids, and that it prompts them to deep dive and understand all the machinery it's built upon! It's so fascinating to me, and i really want to pass that along :))
Hopefully they'll also follow the security advice ahah, a girl can dream!
I'm so glad it was easy to understand! I had to rewrite it so much to remove all the jargon :')
If there's one thing to take out from this, it's to be careful and have lots of common sense. From there, you can choose to learn more or not, but please just don't shoot yourself in the foot!
This was fascinating despite not having any intentions to vibecode 😄
Love how accessible you made this post for beginners!
You know, the way you feel about vibecoding is how I’ve been feeling about software engineers (and billionaires with no qualifications) getting interested in manufacturing and making hardware or robots. I’ve been meaning to write a post about why innovation in manufacturing is much harder than in tech. The difference is just that people are gonna die if software engineers program hardware the same way they do software or (oh the horrors) start letting AI program robots and production machines. That’s become even more scary to me after reading this post and learning how chaotic AI programming is.
I’ve recently seen David Perrell talk about a factory where the production robots learn from each other and change their code when they learn something new and just thought ‘they better not be doing this because that sounds insanely dangerous’ but I think it represents well how different the manufacturing world is from people’s perception of it. And that seems to be similar in software.
Now I’m worried that executives with no clue will decide to suddenly let AI write all the code without knowing the dangers and the whole internet is gonna become mayhem 😅
Oh my goodness, software engineers and robotics are so scary! We've come a long way from nerds playing with cables to something resembling engineering, but we're nowhere near the level of precision and safety needed for actual world interactions. It's always baffling to me that we managed to get all banking online for example, that is so unsafe and prone to error!
As someone who simultaneously wants to stick her head in the sand and hope AI goes away while also thinking hmm I need to sign up for Cursor, I learned so much from this post! You made a technically complex topic really accessible. Thank you!
Depending on your comfort around coding environments (I dove into Cursor without Rose's cautions :-), Googles Studio, ai.dev, could be a place to tinker around with if you are doing basic HTML pages. I did get to bring to life many ideas that have been noodling for a while and appreciate Cursor/Windsurf (competitor)
I'm so happy you found it useful! Cursor can seem a bit daunting if you're not used to IDEs and programmer tools, but it's really one of the best if you want to build something substantial. You can go very far with ChatGPT or Claude already though, so it's worth trying them out if you already have a plan with them.
Oops, I deleted my original comment because it’s answered in the footnotes. Thanks for writing this! CS50 has been on my to learn list since COVID days and I’m taking this as a sign to get started 😂
footnotes are my preferred means of expression ahah!
I'm glad CS50 is on your list. To be completely honest, i didn't do it myself since i was already at uni for the same stuff, but i've looked over the curriculum and it's acknowledged as one of the best "overall introduction" package by the industry!
This is so good, Rose. Going to be sharing this one around.
Glad I could help! This was a fascinating rabbit hole to go down into.
Rose, this was such a fantastic post - pertinent, important, accessible. Each was a lesson I wanted to pass along to the kid who says "I can do that now with AI".
I used to have this rule - to think outside the box, you have to FIRST UNDERSTAND THE BOX.
I'm sending this onto my family.
My dream scenario is that this kind of AI gets into the hands of kids, and that it prompts them to deep dive and understand all the machinery it's built upon! It's so fascinating to me, and i really want to pass that along :))
Hopefully they'll also follow the security advice ahah, a girl can dream!
Thank you for this piece. I've already shared it with many. I appreciated the bit on unit and end to end testing
Thanks for writing this! I haven't seen anyone talk about this and I love how beginner-friendly this was.
I'm 100% that vibe coder who's just happy I can make things work suddenly :')
Also gives me more incentive now to go through these programming courses
Are you the same Ved that is mentioned in the acknowledgements? Thanks for encouraging her to write the piece.
That might be another Ved being tagged :')
oh no, it's you! you answered my note about vibecoding last week and that pushed me to put the effort in :)
thank you again <33
I'm so glad it was easy to understand! I had to rewrite it so much to remove all the jargon :')
If there's one thing to take out from this, it's to be careful and have lots of common sense. From there, you can choose to learn more or not, but please just don't shoot yourself in the foot!