Vibe Coding: How LLMs Finally Opened My Idea Floodgates!

You know that feeling when you have a million ideas bouncing around in your head, but getting them into reality feels like trying to catch water with a fork? That was me for years - until I heard "vibe coding." As someone who's spent years in tech, data, and product management, I was skeptical at first. Vibe coding? Suuureeeeeee. Especially with how easy product marketing managers for new "Vibe Coading" AI startups were making it sound! "It's easy, just tell the AI what you want, and it will create a million-dollar app overnight!" But here I am, writing this first blog post on my new website, with a blogging platform I built from scratch, and I can attest, it works! There are still foundational principles you will need to learn. It's not overnight, and you will go much further with experience in the development world.

From "That Sounds Silly" to "Holy Crap, This Works"

Let me be upfront: I'm not coming at this as a complete newcomer. Years of working in tech as a product manager gave me a solid foundation in how development processes work. But here's the thing - even with that background, I always hit a wall when it came to actually building things myself. My brain would short-circuit somewhere between "great idea" and "working implementation."

The game-changer? Large Language Models (LLMs). And no, I haven't stopped talking about them since they emerged - just ask my friends, family, and coworkers who've definitely dealt a healthy dose of skepticism and probably muted me in group chats by now. (It reminds me of the saying "What's the difference between a Mystic and a schizophrenic? It's all about who you decide to tell".)

Breaking Through My Personal Language and Detail-Oriented Barriers

I've always struggled with writing language architecture. Not the ideas part - my head is full of those - but the actual execution. Grammar, spelling, syntax - it's like my brain speaks one language and there is no translation to the written word. For instance, in high school, I chose to work on the school newspaper's layout editor to meet my language requirements, as I found language arts classes, particularly learning a new language like Spanish, to be particularly challenging. And there is a funny story here that maybe you'll hear one day,

LLMs have changed everything. Now, I can dump my stream-of-consciousness thoughts into a prompt (kind of like I did with this post). The AI helps restructure it into something humans can actually understand, and it is structured (primarily) accurately or at least does a way better job than I could've trying to write all this from scratch. It's like having a translator for my brain; it's not the proper grammar, spelling, and writing mechanics.

Building My Own AI-Powered Infrastructure and really "Vibe Coding"

Over the past few months, I've been exploring various opportunities and developing my own portfolio infrastructure using LLMs. Here's what I've learned:

  1. **Start with the problem you want to solve. While my product management background helped me understand how to structure the development process, a fundamental of any development process is being crystal clear on why you are developing in the first place.

  2. **Let the AI handle the details: I focus on the high-level architecture and let the LLMs worry about perfect syntax. That's the point of coding. I find that if you become too prescriptive, you'll get exactly what you asked for, and it won't work

  3. **Iterate quickly: The beauty of vibe coding is how fast you can go from concept to working prototype. If something doesn't work, you can rebuild it in minutes, not days. Seriously, this part blows my mind

Why This Matters (Beyond Just Making My Life Easier)

This isn't just about me finally being able to build stuff without getting hung up on semicolons. We're at the beginning of a fundamental shift in how people can create. Think about it - how many brilliant ideas never make it to reality because their creators get stuck on implementation details? Did not have the capital to execute on the prototype? Or have access to the right network of people to help guide them? I remember my days in analytics, where I would spend hours amongst a group of people trying to solve problems that can now be done in a matter of seconds.

The tools we have now are like having a senior developer sitting next to you 24/7, helping translate your ideas into working code. Sure, you still need to understand the basics and know what you're trying to build, but the barrier to entry has dropped dramatically. The best part is that if you don't know, you can just ask the LLM. For example, "I'm not sure what the best path forward is. How would you recommend I proceed with modern-day development practices? or "What is the best tool to use here? Give me three options, pros and cons, and the cost associated with each."

What's Next?

This is just my first post, and I've got a whole series planned about my process and learnings. But here's what I want you to take away:

  1. Don't dismiss new approaches just because they sound silly (I almost did with "vibe coding")
  2. Focus on what you want to build, not just how to build it
  3. Use AI as a partner, not just a tool.
  4. Start small, but think big.

For those struggling with traditional development approaches: your time is coming. Actually, scratch that - your time is here. The floodgates are open, and I'm excited to see what we all build together.

This is just the beginning of my journey with AI-assisted development, and I'm looking forward to sharing more detailed tutorials and insights in future posts. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Have you tried vibe coding? What are you building? Let's chat in the comments.

[note: This post was written with AI assistance, Chat GPT, Claude, and Grammarly, to name a few - because this is a AI blog after all.]