Back in the ’90s, if a young boy in Iowa said he wanted to become a New York cab driver because a navigation system could give him all the directions he needed, everyone would probably have laughed. They would have thought it was impossible.
But if the same boy said it today, no one would laugh. It would be entirely feasible.
That’s how I think about vibe coding.
Vibe coding is like driving with a navigation system. Your coding agent is there, giving you directions and suggestions. Nothing more, nothing less. And honestly, it’s great not having to Google every little thing or dig through Stack Overflow.
Just like when you drive with navigation, you tend to keep it on even when you already know the way. And if you’ve driven somewhere with navigation several times, you probably don’t memorize the directions—you simply follow them.
Coding with an agent can be the same. You still need to know your destination. But if you rely on your coding agent to write the same kind of code repeatedly, you may eventually find that you can’t write it yourself anymore.
There’s another important distinction, though.
A navigation system can help you become a good New York cab driver, but it won’t make you a Formula 1 driver.
In the same way, a coding agent can help you become a good coder, but it doesn’t automatically make you a great architect or designer.
That’s why the old saying, “The only limit is your imagination,” feels more true to me than ever with vibe coding.