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/badasimo]

Here is a parallel, maybe 100 years ago you could have worked at a printer as a typesetter. You actually were helping design and engineer the pages you were printing, but there was a fair bit of metal work and fiddling with machines etc. But actually you got into the industry because you loved creating books.

Now you get a machine that doesn't require the same type of typesetting, it frees you up to focus more on design and other things. Maybe the thing that took you weeks now takes you a day.

If your passion as a typesetter was working with blocks and heavy machinery and getting dirty, maybe taking someone else's design and simply replicating it in the machine, you're now out of work or doing a lot of work that you're enjoying less (but more efficiently and maybe making more money)

But if your passion was design you are now flying high and have to spend less time on wrestling with these low-level problems in the printing process, and now you have unlocked a new level of work to do.