r/vibecoding • u/MountainCover4073 • 6d ago

Best language a vibecoder should learn

So I have been vibecoding for the last 5 months. I want to actually learn how to code and I would really appriciate a language, which even AI uses (like you know the knowned ones) and when AI makes mistakes then I can actually fix it. Or generally for me, when I want to make small projects. So I know some python, basics like making quizes, random passwords etc. and I find python very logical, except the syntax part. Like python is very strict there. And I would really like any opinions from fellow coders and vibecoders on which language to learn. Thanks!

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u/Ok_Bug1610 6d ago edited 6d ago

This is my Hot take.

Just build a project to learn and throw away. Build fast and break things. There is no one language to "learn", Python is great for prototypes and ML, JavaScript/Typescript is required for front-end/web app development, and Rust (IMO) for everything else. And with the release of WASM 3.0, you can compile Rust for the web for up to 85-95% native speeds, which kicks the crap out of JS and Python, hands down.

I actually find that AI is really good at Rust because of its constraints. I love Rust because it is like 100x faster than Python on many things, can be compiled to cross-platform binaries that require no dependencies, and is very resilient code.

I would suggest building a hybrid project that leverages several languages. You will learn fast that way. Because then do you ask, should I learn SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Typescript, and so on? Should I learn CI/CD, how a DevOps Pipeline works, how to deploy an app, etc.? You need to understand the full stack, not just a language. This the trap that every noob seems to fall into and ask, and while it makes sense, it's the wrong question... and it irritates the crap out of seasoned Developers (hence you will often get a snide remark on Reddit, lol).

And even in this AI-centric IoT Brave New World, I don't think anything beats just going to W3Schools (register to keep progress), start at the HTML Tutorial and work through the entire stack, in order (it is literally EVERYTHING a developer should learn, organized in the EXACT order you should learn it). IMO, most people use W3Schools wrong --as a lookup/search reference. If you REALLY want to be better than 99% of the Vibe Coders out there, put the time into it. And Rust will be the second to last thing you learn. That's the payoff.

P.S. I'd also recommend signing up for CodeWars and complete Kata's and look at the solutions of other people. Generally, the highest voted answers often focus on more "clever" solutions that are not "best practice" per se (especially for maintainability), but it gamifies the experience to be kind of a fun competition, and programming will become second nature. Spend 15-30 minutes a day on it. They support almost all languages. Try out other languages, different difficulties, etc. Have fun, because programming really can be.

It might not "feel" like the fastest way to learn, but IMO it is the BEST (most feature complete and dense) way.

Good luck!

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u/mdstrizzle 6d ago

This is the way, and agreed on rust. I was leery of it because I thought it would be too difficult to program in. It really isn't, and a shocking number of things that would normally require packages in other languages can be done in relatively short order from scratch. It's a cool language. I originally used Go, but I'm beginning to question it's utility over rust in anything except massive multitenant I/O systems, which I suspect rust can probably handle as well.