I’ve vibe-coded enough solutions to know exactly when a 'freaking amazing' tool turns into a Frankenstein Monster.
This is a word of caution to those of you business owners and nonprofit leaders who don’t have a coding background and/or tech staff but are vibe coding anyway.
The Allure of the Amazeballs Tech
Vibe coding has become all the rage with the AI tools over the past several months. And as someone who has vibe coded a bunch of solutions for my own business (some have worked, some haven’t), I can say this with some certainty: if you don’t know how to code in the language your AI tool is vibe coding for you AND you don’t have the tech staff/resources to help you troubleshoot and maintain your creation, all you are doing is setting yourself up for a Frankenstein Monster situation.
"A checklist is a specialized tool. It is for those who realize that even the most expert and experienced among us are fallible." — Atul Gawande
The AI technology is freaking amazing (just watch this video that Damien made a while back for creating a fully functioning dog training app with Gemini Canvas).
And with this amazeballs tech has come this whole new accessibility to coding that most people didn’t have before, unless they had some kind of tech background. But yet, as Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, "I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it."
Launching is the Real Boss Fight
You can create incredibly complex interactive websites and apps with a few simple prompts. That isn’t the problem. The first problem comes in when you try to launch it. Do you even know how to launch it? Because that part isn’t nearly as easy.
Troubleshooting the Code Ghost in the Machine
The second problem comes in (YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB) when the first error occurs. Do you know how to troubleshoot the 1000s, if not millions, of lines of code? An AI tool can help you, but you have to know what to tell it to fix. Otherwise, what often happens is it will go in, find one error, fix that error, and then change all of the other code, and now your perfectly formatted page looks completely different and you have a whole new set of issues.
The 3-Minute Expiration Date
Say you get past issues one and two, great! Now the tech has upgraded, as it does about every 3 minutes or so (and that is only a partial joke). Do you know where to make adjustments?
Don’t Paint Yourself Into a Digital Corner
There are more considerations to take into account when you start vibe coding something that you plan on putting out there as public-facing or even as something you will make vital to your business, but I will stop there at those three as they seem to be the most common ones I have come across when talking to people.
"True expertise requires about 10,000 hours of practice." — Malcolm Gladwell
I point these out not to deter or scare you from using the tools….please, go play with them; experiment; learn! I point these out to help you from painting yourself into a corner that will take more time and money to get out of than it took to get you there in the first place.
Find Your "Who" to Manage Your "How"
"The 'How' mindset leads to overwhelm and burnout, limiting growth. Shifting to 'Who' empowers delegation." — Dan Sullivan
My first recommendation is something that I know 99% of you are gonna scoff at, but I’ll say it anyway: Learn some sort of coding language.
My own technical teacher (aka my husband, aka my business partner) recommends starting with Python. I learned HTML way long ago, shortly after it came out. I later learned VBA, SQL, CSS, JavaScript. Python is on my near-term learning list since several of the things I have vibe-coded have used Python, and I’d like to be able to troubleshoot it myself without running to my tech support.
My other recommendation is to hire someone to help you. This doesn’t mean you need to go out and pay for a $250K/yr FTE. You can hire a freelancer through a freelance marketplace (there are several sites out there….none of which I’ll endorse, but they’re out there). You can hire a fractional CTO (it is where you hire a C-suite level person, but to work for you at a fraction of the price and a fraction of their time). You can ask a tech-savvy friend to take pity on you and help you out….but just remember, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for.
Ponder This
- Remember the last time you tried to "fix" a tech issue and ended up making it five times worse?
- If your custom-built app broke at 9:00 AM on a Monday, who would be the first person you'd call?
- What is one small coding skill that would make you feel like a wizard instead of a "vibe" experimenter?
Books/Newsletters
- The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
- Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
- Who Not How - Dan Sullivan
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