Vibecoding & Vibecoding

ChatGPT:

Vibecoding is an internet slang term that combines vibe and code, typically used to describe when someone aligns their outward appearance, behavior, or communication style to fit a specific aesthetic, mood, or subculture — either intentionally or subconsciously. It’s like “coding” yourself to emit a certain “vibe.”

Examples:
• If someone wears all black, listens to moody music, and posts poetic captions, they might be vibecoding goth.
• A person who dresses in vintage clothes, drinks matcha, and reads in parks might be vibecoding cottagecore.

It’s often used humorously or ironically online, especially on platforms like TikTok or X (formerly Twitter), to describe the way people present themselves in highly stylized ways to fit a specific energy or trend.

The exact origin of the term “vibecoding” is a bit murky, as it emerged organically from internet culture, particularly among Gen Z users on TikTok, Twitter (X), and Tumblr around 2021–2022. It’s not from academic or technical jargon — it’s a playful, meme-born evolution of the word vibe.

It likely came about as a twist on phrases like:
• “Coded as” — used in queer theory and fandom spaces (e.g., “he’s queer-coded”).
• “Vibe check” — popularized in memes to assess someone’s energy or mood.
• “Main character energy” — another meme-y way to say someone is projecting a specific vibe.

“Vibecoding” caught on because it humorously captures how people curate their identity to fit a mood, trend, or persona — often with an aesthetic edge.

“Vibecoding” is intentionally self-aware and a little absurd. It pokes fun at how curated, aesthetic-driven, and performative online identities (and even real-life personas) can be. So yes, it is artificial — but in a winking, ironic way. People use it to both embrace and mock how we all slip into roles, moods, or trends to “match the vibe.”

It’s like saying, “I know I’m being extra about this look/persona — and I’m leaning into it.”

So whether someone’s vibecoding “goth art student in mourning” or “guy who peaked in 2013 Tumblr,” it’s a little ridiculous on purpose — and that’s what makes it fun.

Aesthetic Vibes People “Code” or Emulate:

1.  Cottagecore
•   Vibe: Soft, pastoral, romanticized rural life
•   Visuals: Linen dresses, wildflowers, baking bread, handwritten letters, beeswax candles
•   Mood: Gentle, nostalgic, off-grid dreamer
•   Vibecoding Example: “I’m vibecoding 19th-century herbalist who lives with two goats and writes poetry in the margins of old cookbooks.”

2. Dark Academia
   • Vibe: Gothic intellectualism, moody scholarship
   • Visuals: Tweed blazers, candles, Latin texts, overcast skies, coffee in old libraries
   • Mood: Melancholic, introspective, secretly dramatic
   • Vibecoding Example: “I’m vibecoding tragic literature professor who quotes Sappho and forgets to eat.”
3. Clean Girl
   • Vibe: Minimal, polished, effortless wellness
   • Visuals: Gold hoops, slick bun, dewy skin, matcha, glass water bottle
   • Mood: Calm, intentional, maybe a bit smug
   • Vibecoding Example: “Vibecoding girlboss who wakes at 5 AM to journal and do Pilates before launching a skincare line.”
4. Coastal Grandmother
   • Vibe: Affluent, relaxed seaside elegance (at any age)
   • Visuals: Linen pants, white button-down, hydrangeas, glass of Chardonnay on the porch
   • Mood: Serene, accomplished, unbothered
   • Vibecoding Example: “Currently vibecoding Diane Keaton in a beach house, planning dinner parties with too much rosemary.”
5. Apocalypse Chic / Survivalcore
6. • Vibe: Minimalist, tactical, end-of-the-world preparedness
7. • Visuals: Utility gear, black layers, waterproof everything, solar charger
8. Mood: Calm under pressure, emotionally armored• Vibecoding Example: “Vibecoding lone wanderer who’s emotionally healed but still carries a crowbar, just in case.

“Vibecoding ”has developed a secondary meaning in some tech and AI communitie, quite distinct from the aesthetic or persona-based usage.

In this newer context, vibecoding refers to:

Writing code guided by intuition, experimentation, or “vibe” — often with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot — rather than strict planning or deep understanding of the underlying system.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek term, often used self-deprecatingly by developers to describe moments when they:
• Prompt an AI with vague ideas and copy-paste the output.
• Code by feel or trial-and-error rather than solid logic.
• Hack things together that “seem to work” without knowing why.
• Skip documentation and trust vibes (and AI) to carry them through.

Examples:
• “I don’t fully understand recursion, but the AI said it works. I’m just vibecoding now.”
• “Did I plan this API structure? No. But it vibes. Vibecoding it is.”

Tone:

The term is ironic and humorous, and often pokes fun at how generative AI is changing the way some developers write code — replacing rigorous understanding with iterative prompting and pattern mimicry.

It can carry a subtle critique, too — suggesting that while tools are helpful, they might encourage shallower engagement with the code.

Example 1: “I want a quick web scraper, vibes only”

Scenario:
Someone needs to scrape article titles from a blog page, but they don’t know how to use requests or BeautifulSoup in Python — so they prompt an AI:

“Write Python code to get all article titles from a webpage using BeautifulSoup.”

AI output (vibecoded):


Why it’s vibecoding:
The person may not know:
• Why .find_all() works this way,
• How to handle errors, headers, or different HTML layouts,
• Or even how requests.get() behaves under the hood.

But — it runs, it works, and it feels like the “right vibe” for a quick win.

Example 2: “Make me a Discord bot that says hi”

Scenario:
A non-expert wants to build a Discord bot just to test out automation. They prompt:

“Can you give me Python code for a Discord bot that replies ‘Hi there!’ when someone says hello?”

AI output

Why it’s vibecoding:
The person likely:
• Doesn’t fully understand async def, or Discord’s event model,
• Doesn’t handle edge cases (rate limiting, errors),
• May not know how to store the token safely — they’re vibing through the logic.

Still, the bot runs. Mission accomplished (vibe secured).

Example 3: “Build me a chatbot that remembers things (kind of)”

Scenario:
Someone wants to build a chatbot that can respond to user messages and remember basic facts during a session — but they’re not a dev, they’re vibecoding it together with help from AI tools.

They prompt:

“Can you give me Python code for a simple chatbot that responds to user input and remembers their name after they tell it?”

AI-generated (and slightly tweaked) response:

What Makes This Deeper-Logic Vibecoding:
• Simple session memory:
It uses a dictionary to remember user info, simulating short-term memory — basic but functional.
• Conditional branching:
The bot responds differently based on specific keyword cues. It’s not NLP, but it’s smart enough to feel dynamic.
• Edge-case lightness:
It doesn’t cover everything (e.g. misphrased names or punctuation), but it handles enough to seem smart on a surface level.
• No classes, no architecture — just vibes.
No formal chatbot framework, no external libraries — just raw Python and optimism.
How a Vibecoder Might Use This:
• Plug it into a GUI later without changing the logic.
• Say, “I’ll refactor this into a proper app later,” but probably won’t.
• Be proud it feels interactive even if it’s not scalable or secure.

*****

Final Thought:

Vibecoding in this context isn’t lazy — it’s exploratory, playful, and AI-assisted. It lets people move fast and learn by doing, though the code might be cleaned up later by someone less “vibe-based.”

here’s a Fun Vibecoder’s Checklist, ideal for anyone leaning hard into intuition, AI tools, and sheer audacity while writing code:

The Vibecoder’s Checklist

For when you’re not sure what you’re doing, but the vibes are strong.

1. [ ] You started with a vague goal, not a plan. “I just want it to… do the thing. You know?”
2. [ ] Your Google search history includes:
   • “python do something when button is clicked”
   • “what is flask and do I need it”
   • “how to loop but not forever”
   • “chatgpt write code for me but make it work this time”
3. [ ] You’ve copied and pasted code you didn’t 100% understand. You’ll look into it later (probably never).
4. [ ] Your AI prompt was something like: “Hey can you make this work but not ugly?”
   “Just add the stuff that makes it secure or whatever.”
   “Make it run. I’ll clean it up tomorrow.”
5. [ ] You ran the script and it worked. First try. Somehow. You didn’t question it. You took the W and moved on.
6. [ ] Your code includes at least one print statement that says something like:
   

1. [ ] You told someone, “It’s basically done,” even though:
   • There’s no error handling
   • You hardcoded something important
   • You haven’t tested edge cases
   • It’s duct-taped together with vibes and a prayer。
2. [ ] You gave the file a suspicious name like:
   • final_version_actually_final.py
   • temp_please_work.js
   • testthingy2_real_one.ipynb
3. [ ] You plan to fix the architecture “in the next version.”
   Spoiler: you won’t.
4. [ ] Despite it all… it works.
   And that’s enough. For now.

Badge Earned:

[ Certified Vibecoder: Intuition > Documentation ]

while the two uses of “vibecoding” seem totally unrelated on the surface, they actually share a subtle core idea. Here’s a breakdown of the comparison:

1. Surface Meaning

1. What They Have in Common
   • Vibes over structure:
   Both meanings revolve around intuition, mood, and improvisation rather than formal logic or deep knowledge.
   • Performance or surface-level action:
   One is about looking or acting a certain way (aesthetic coding of self), the other about getting code to work without fully knowing why (surface-level coding).
   • A bit of irony or self-awareness:
   Neither is used in a dead-serious way. People often say “I’m vibecoding” with a wink — acknowledging that it’s not the most grounded approach, but it works for now.
2. Key Difference
   • Audience vs. output:
   • Aesthetic vibecoding is usually about how others perceive you or how you express yourself.
   • AI/dev vibecoding is about getting something working, even if it’s a bit of a black box.

In short:

While the contexts are wildly different — social media aesthetics vs. software development — both meanings of vibecoding tap into a shared idea:
going with the flow, trusting intuition or external tools, and projecting something that “works” without necessarily understanding or building it from first principles.

“Vide” is one of those slippery modern words that carries a lot of meaning without being pinned down too easily.

At its core, “vibe” means:

A mood, feeling, or emotional atmosphere — sensed more than explained.

It’s not just how something looks or sounds — it’s the intangible energy it gives off, and how it makes you or others feel.
Origins & Evolution:
• “Vibe” comes from “vibration,” originally meaning literal oscillations.
• In the 1960s–70s, it was used in counterculture and hippie slang to mean emotional or spiritual energy:
“That place has good vibes.”
• Over time, it evolved into a general way of describing impressions or aesthetics, especially ones that are hard to define.

So when people say “vibecoding”, they’re drawing on this sense of flow, impression, intuition, mood — whether in social identity or how they code.

It’s less about facts or structure, more about feel.