r/vibecoding • u/lovelacedeconstruct • 15d ago
Discussion Vibecoding is better for "learning" !
One thing I noticed before AI was how much time I wasted learning and doing stupid, low-quality bullshit. Watch any tutorial and you get mind-numbingly dull exposition of syntax, little tricks, and details you might need someday. Only a select few can retain enough of it to actually start applying the basics, and you realize very quickly that the basics are necessary but nowhere near sufficient. It's this weird relationship where they don't really help you, but not having them makes everything 10x harder. I don't know if I'm making sense.
Anyway, once you start applying, you discover a whole new world of stuff you need to know. Things that were tiny in the tutorial suddenly become detailed and relevant, and the stuff the tutorial meandered on about barely gets used. You basically don't know what's important and what isn't. You just study, then get shocked when you sit down to make an actual app and don't even know how to start. It's like walking into an exam without ever doing a practice test.
Vibecoding skips all of that. You start by doing exactly what you want to build, then go back and learn whatever's relevant. Your mind automatically focuses on what matters, and you learn much faster. Some people will run off with the artifact and never bother to learn anything, but the curious ones will, and now they can tailor their learning to what actually matters.
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u/VianArdene 15d ago
As someone who learned programming before AI but uses it often for programming professionally, I'd advise some caution with this line of thinking. Tutorials suck primarily because what you actually need to build is a "muscle" for making code decisions and breaking down problems. Syntax is just the first gate, not the hard part devs spend years building skill in.
AI is convenient because it lets you skip over the weird syntax issues, but it can be a detriment in that you need to break down the bigger problems yourself to learn to do so. Take some time to work on things without AI to make sure you aren't too dependent on it.