You know that feeling when you’re sitting with your laptop open, staring at code that looks like hieroglyphics, wondering, “What am I even doing here?” That was me for the past eight months.
I’ve spent years telling myself and others, “I’m not a developer,” while simultaneously writing just enough code to survive.
But something changed recently. I stopped worrying about whether I was a “real developer” and embraced “vibe coding” – building by feel, using AI as my coding partner, and learning just enough to make something useful. The result? After eight months, a fully functional app that’s transformed how I run my LEGO reselling business.
This isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about finding a new path into coding that doesn’t require a computer science degree or years of studying frameworks. It’s about building something real, solving actual problems, and learning along the way.
Here’s how AI helped me go from PowerShell scripts to a full React/Express app without ever formally “learning to code”.
What is “Vibe Coding”?
Vibe coding is a term coined by Andrej Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI, in February 2025. It describes a new approach to software development in which you let AI do most of the actual coding while you guide it with natural language instructions rather than manually writing code yourself.
The core philosophy is about “fully giving in to the vibes” and almost “forgetting that the code even exists”- focusing on what you want to create rather than how to code it. When you encounter errors, you paste them to the AI without comment, and it usually fixes the issues.
As Karpathy described it, “I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy-paste stuff, and it mostly works.” It’s particularly suited for low-stakes projects and prototypes where development speed matters more than perfect understanding of every line of code.
For non-developers vibe coding opens up app creation by letting you focus on creative aspects rather than getting stuck in technical details.
Is it “real” coding? The purists would say no. But here’s what matters: I have a working app that solves real problems in my business, built mostly through conversations with AI. That feels pretty real to me.
And I’m not alone – there’s a whole movement of “vibe coders” emerging. People building software without traditional coding backgrounds, leveraging AI to bridge the gap between what they can imagine and what they can create. It’s democratizing software development in a way that low-code platforms promised but never fully delivered.
The beauty of vibe coding isn’t that it replaces learning – it’s that it lets you build first and learn as you go, in context, solving real problems rather than working through abstract tutorials.