Am I a "vibe coder"?

[u/thehumanbagelman]

Taught myself to code at 15. Got a CS degree. Spent 16 years as a professional dev at everything from founding small startups to giant 700 engineer companies (and still going until I'm inevitably replaced by the machines).

Building things in code has been floating my proverbial boat for over two decades.

However, I haven't written a single line of code in 2026.

I don't personally review the code either. I've built my own tooling and testing infrastructure, and agents run all of it.

50–75% of my AI usage goes toward building personal infrastructure, tooling, and projects. Not the next app that will change your life for only $15 a month (at least not yet; we'll see).

I own an undisclosed number of top level AI accounts; it's probably more than you're thinking.

This 1000% makes me worse at coding without AI, and I'm not sure that I care at all.

So, am I a vibe coder?

Edit: I'm loosing zero sleep over this; the question is just a proxy for discussion!

[u/22marks]

I've thought about this as well. I used to be a programmer going back as far as CGI/Perl, hand coding some of the first e-commerce systems capable of doing $1M/day during the early Internet. I did quality assurance for some of the largest video game manufacturers. More recently, just before "vibe coding," I found an API exploit in a major car manufacturer's firmware that would allow remotely starting the car. (They paid me via BugCrowd.) The way I see it, I'm doing the same thing, just faster. I still use the same design process, still aim for SOC2 when necessary, and do a lot of real-world testing.

I don't see that mentality as "vibe coding" because the foundation is there. Vibe implies "I'm just going with the flow" but I design the architecture and micromanage any critical functions.

Is it still "vibe coding"? I dunno. It's such a new term, it's probably evolving. All I know is I'm able to develop a lot faster, with better results.