I keep using the term “vibe coding” on this blog, and I realized I should probably explain what I actually mean by it. Because when I tell people I built a blog by having a conversation with an AI, the reactions range from “that is cool” to “that is not real coding” to “wait, that actually works?”
So let me break it down — what vibe coding is, how I use it, and why I think it matters for developers who want to build things on the side.
The Term Came from a Tweet
The phrase “vibe coding” was coined by Andrej Karpathy — former Tesla AI director and OpenAI researcher — in early 2025. He described it as a style of programming where you “fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists.”
In other words: you describe what you want in plain language, the AI writes the code, and you just steer the ship. You do not read every line of generated code. You do not manually debug. You just tell the AI what is wrong and let it fix things.
When I first heard this, my developer instinct screamed: “That is irresponsible. You should understand every line of code you ship.” And honestly? That instinct is not wrong. But it is also not the full picture.
Me: “Is vibe coding actually legit, or is it just hype?”
I actually asked Claude this question directly. I wanted the AI’s own take on the trend it is enabling.
Claude’s answer was surprisingly balanced. It said vibe coding works well for certain things — prototypes, side projects, content sites, automation scripts — but would be risky for anything involving money, security, or complex business logic. It compared it to using a power tool: incredibly productive when used for the right job, dangerous when used carelessly.
I thought that was a fair take. And it matched my own experience so far.
What Vibe Coding Actually Looks Like (For Me)
Let me give you real examples from this blog project, because I think the abstract definition does not capture what the day-to-day experience feels like.
Setting up the server: I gave Claude a server IP and password. It SSH-ed in, installed Nginx, PHP, MariaDB, WordPress, configured SSL, opened firewall ports, and fixed a config error — all while I watched. I did not write a single command. I did not even copy-paste a single command. The AI executed everything directly.
Writing blog posts: I explain what I want to write about in Korean. Claude writes the draft in English. I give feedback (“too stiff,” “show more of the process,” “add this detail”). Claude revises. When I approve, Claude publishes the post directly to WordPress via the server — I never touch the editor.
Configuring SEO: I told Claude my goal was AdSense approval. It installed plugins, walked me through Yoast SEO setup (I sent screenshots at every step), created required pages, connected Google Search Console, and submitted a sitemap. I made decisions; it did the work.
In all of these cases, my role is the same: I am the person who decides what to build and why. The AI is the person who builds it.
“But That is Not Real Coding”
I hear this a lot, and I get where it comes from. If you define coding as “writing syntax in a text editor,” then no, vibe coding is not coding. I am not writing PHP. I am not writing nginx configs. I am not even writing HTML for my blog posts.
But if you define it as “using technology to build things that work,” then yes, it absolutely is. The blog exists. It serves pages. It has SSL. It ranks on Google. The fact that an AI wrote the config files instead of me does not make it less real.
I think the discomfort comes from the fact that we have always equated the skill of coding with the act of typing code. But these are becoming two different things. Knowing what to build, how to structure it, what trade-offs matter, and how to evaluate the output — that is the skill. The typing part is becoming optional.
Where Vibe Coding Works
- Side projects and MVPs — When speed matters more than perfection. You want to validate an idea, not write production-grade code.
- Content sites and blogs — Like this one. The “code” is mostly configuration, and the content is the actual product.
- Automation and scripts — One-off tasks where you need something done but do not want to spend two hours on a bash script.
- Learning and prototyping — When you are exploring a new technology and want to see working examples fast.
Where It Does Not Work (Yet)
- Production systems handling real money — You need to understand and audit every line.
- Complex architecture decisions — AI can suggest, but you need the experience to evaluate.
- Security-critical code — AI-generated code can have subtle vulnerabilities you would miss if you are not reading carefully.
- Team codebases — Other developers need to understand and maintain what was written.
Why This Matters for Side Hustles
Here is the thing that excites me most about vibe coding: it dramatically lowers the effort needed to ship something.
As developers, we have always had the skills to build side projects. The bottleneck was never ability — it was time and energy. After eight hours of coding at work, the last thing you want to do is come home and code more. But when your side project workflow is “have a conversation and let AI do the tedious parts,” the barrier drops significantly.
This blog took 30 minutes to set up. The posts take about 15-20 minutes each — most of that is me thinking about what to say, not wrestling with tools. If I had to do all of this manually, I honestly would not have started. The friction would have killed it, like it killed every previous attempt.
Vibe coding made the difference between “I should start a blog someday” and “the blog is live and you are reading it right now.”
How This Post Was Made
This one was a bit different from the previous posts. There were no screenshots to send — it is a concept piece, not a tutorial. So the process was more like a brainstorming session.
I told Claude: “Write a post explaining what vibe coding is. Use my actual blog as examples. And I want to address the criticism that it is not real coding.” Claude wrote the first draft. I told it to make the tone more conversational and to include the part where I actually asked Claude whether vibe coding is legit — because that conversation really happened, and I thought it was interesting that the AI gave a nuanced answer instead of just cheerleading.
As always, Claude published this directly to WordPress. I talked, gave feedback, approved, and the post went live. No copy-pasting, no WordPress editor, no manual formatting.
This post was written with Claude AI. I provided the direction, topic, and key points in Korean — Claude turned it into the article you just read.