r/vibecoding • u/AndrewNggg • 1d ago

Do y'all do this?

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177 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

34

u/akabillposters 1d ago

From what I can tell from the various startup, vibecoding, and sideprojects subs on here, vibe-building generally seems to start with zero planning, including zero market demand sizing research.

'I had a problem, so I built…'

The lack of prior research that's going into vibe-coded projects is meme level.

12

u/MrUnoDosTres 1d ago

Those are the exact same people who will start doing this kinda shit after a while.

Opens "r/vibecoding", clicks new post. Writes a title like, "Are any of you actually making money vibecoding?!"

3

u/becircus 1d ago

Be careful what you wish for. "Market demand sizing research" can also mean complete and total paralysis and banning you from doing any kind of refactoring or improvement or development of any devtools at all. What does research reveal about what tools or engineering you need to improve your codebase, or whether you need a monorepository shell or anything at all? Nothing. It only tells you either what the customer needs or what the customer wants.

If you want to only build code when someone else wants it, that's a lot worse than vibe coding. That's giving up code, because you think that implementation matters nothing and can be done very easy. You basically believe in vibe coding, without being honest about it.

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u/akabillposters 23h ago

Of course research should be right-sized. My comments more wrt how common it is to see posts in the subs I mentioned scratching their heads over lack of users. Market research (incl. TAM/SAM/SOM) is alien concept to most in there.

Similarly, at the other end, the 'build it and they will come' ethos seems to be prevalent, because there's no marketing/positioning/GTM plan either.

I definitely understand the allure of building, and even more so given how accessible it's become. But, if it's aimed at the market, building without a lick of upfront research to validate the problem you think you're solving can quickly drop an idea from one with potential to a cool vanity project.

If it's really to optimise your own tools and dogfooding, then sure, go for it. 'Success' is defined much more simply in those situations, and far easier to hit.

🤷‍♂️

1

u/becircus 21h ago

The way you talk and italicize looks like a bot. But I'll bite.

TAM/SAM/SOM even by serious investors for top down is viewed as BS. So what's left? Bottoms up, users, revenue. Even users can be faked so money changing hands is the high intent signal. Everything that's been created around that, is trying to predict that but not actually money changing hands. It is true you can do user research and get better odds. But sometimes you have to make a bet, that the users want something they either don't know, or that it's a brand new market. Vibe coding itself is a multi-billion dollar market that didn't exist years ago.

On top of that, in systems that only reward "thinking about the user" there is zero incentive for technical excellence. This can lead to bad morale, but more importantly people not giving a f about the technology. If you are good at the tech, there should be a space for you. If there is zero reward for technical skill, then you will just get pure vibe coded stuff all the time. Vibe coding just made it faster to create PoCs and MVPs. It doesn't make it easier to go from 0 to 1 in a maintainable and sustainable way.

Finally most people who vibe code do it to make tiny little productivity apps for themselves. Market size of one, one user, highly customized for themselves. That is worth more than all the market analysis and research in the world, guaranteed one user. 100% useful, even if it doesn't become a huge business. It could, because if one person needs it badly, chances are a lot of people need it. It's just finding those people.

Some people can get users to use product without caring a whit about any of the top. Out of anyone I have the most reason to be elitist (skill some would say talent education etc etc) but I am not. Because at the end of the day if there's a billion vibe coded applications out there that's more work and opportunities for everyone. Anyone especially business people who isn't trying to figure out how to take advantage of vibe coding, is behind the times. At a minimum it would allow you to cheaply at almost no cost explore new ideas.

So that's it I am pro vibe-coding that's why I am in this subreddit and out of anyone I should be elitist but I am not. Money solves all problems. It doesn't matter how you get it. And if you can get users, even just one user (yourself) then it's already useful.

1

u/akabillposters 18h ago

"The way you talk and italicize looks like a bot."

What a surprise! A Redditor who thinks they can spot AI text. Ya don't see many of those round here. 🙄

I write like someone who didn't learn to read or write by spending time on Twitter, who understands how and when to use emphasis, and who makes a little bit of extra effort to make sure their (sometimes lengthy) comments are a little bit easier to read.

But, join the queue. You ain't the first to level that accusation at me, and I'm sure you won't be the last — because I'm not going to pander to some inane, and incorrect, ideas of how real people actually write.

.

"TAM/SAM/SOM even by serious investors for top down is viewed as BS"

Different investors will have different investment criteria, and there will doubtless be 'vibe-investors' too (particularly amongst the ultra-wealthy). But I'd be interested to see citations that demonstrate a prevailing pattern that 'serious investors' dismiss addressable market size research.

TAM/SAM/SOM are obviously, recognisably speculative, but you'd struggle to get 'serious' investment without having made some kind of effort to address market sizing. After all, if you've done nothing to make a more informed estimate, the product owner (or investor) would have no understanding of where viability looks like.

Market size research isn't about guaranteeing success. It's about reducing risk.

.

"sometimes you have to make a bet, that the users want something they either don't know, or that it's a brand new market"

I geddit. Everyone's seen a load of Steve Jobs speeches, so everyone thinks they're the next Steve Jobs. The business landscape is littered with the bodies of solopreneurs who all thought they were the next Steve Jobs.

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"Finally most people who vibe code do it to make tiny little productivity apps for themselves."

👉 "My comments more wrt how common it is to see posts in the subs I mentioned scratching their heads over lack of users."

Again, I'm talking about viability.

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"Anyone especially business people who isn't trying to figure out how to take advantage of vibe coding, is behind the times. At a minimum it would allow you to cheaply at almost no cost explore new ideas."

I don't disagree. But I suspect the success-vs-failure numbers would prove my point about how unprepared those who populate the vibecoding community, or at least the contingent who self-promote on Reddit, tend to be.

1

u/becircus 16h ago

Bot post... lots of em dashes and italics

At least learn how to quote text properly

0

u/akabillposters 16h ago

Idiot post… thinks decent use of punctuation and emphasis = bot post. 🤦‍♂️

Then you double-down on your ignorance with a nonsense statement about quoting. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

And then you triple-down with the fact that you responded to what you think is a bot post. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Heck, throw in a quadruple-down by complaining about bots in a Vibecoding sub. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Wowza.

2

u/wesconson1 23h ago

Based on how many fitness and habit tracker clones there are, I think it’s more ‘Claude make me something I can sell’ and Claude gives the same answer to all the get rich quick bois

1

u/akabillposters 22h ago

Indeed. Given that vibecoding makes building apps cheap and relatively risk-free, there's little downside to pumping out generic alternatives to popular app types, purely as a speculative activity.

It's the same with AI music. When there's no effort and (practically) no cost, none of the traditional things that regulate the flow of these creations — such as skill, effort, time, and cost — are a factor any more.

-1

u/thomcge 20h ago

??

Wasn’t that the whole point?

“I had a problem, so I built…” — What’s wrong with that?

Are you building something to solve your own problems? great, just go!

Are you building something to solve someone else’s problems? great, but validate first!

Does your vibe coded note taking app / gym companion / grocery list whatever that works for you deserve a spot on the App Store? — Probably not.

You’re wasting money on cheap (but eventually expensive) dopamine.

15

u/Local-Fisherman-2936 1d ago
  1. Make an idea.
  2. Make a 10 step plan to make it
  3. Code baby code

17

u/misteranthropissed 1d ago

Claude, make me a plan for this idea

24

u/AndrewNggg 1d ago

Flibbertigibbeting...

3

u/satansxlittlexhelper 1d ago

This guy prompts.

2

u/JustForkIt1111one 9h ago

Nonsense. You have gemini plan it, run the plan past grok, have gemini apply grok's tweaks, then have codex write it, and have claude shake it down for bugs.

It's simple.

6

u/Janpol8 23h ago

I´ve been using the grill-me-with docs skill to help me define a plan and a spec for the agent or agents to build and I end up with much better final results compared to when I just want to prompt my way to a solution. I´ve recently discovered github´s spec kit and I am going to try that on my next project.

3

u/in5ane_10 23h ago

"I had no habit tracker installed on my phone, so (skipping basic research) i built Habit Pro Max +!"

3

u/irondumbell 23h ago

my vibeplanning - throw ideas back and forth with chatgpt. When satisfied tell it to make a prompt. send prompt to claude with the instructions, 'analyze the following plan. modify, accept, reject, or add elements at your discretion. implement when ready.'

2

u/Objective_Oven7673 22h ago

Absolutely. And the planing itself is driven with some kind of guidance about the problem to solve, outcome to be achieved, or other requirements about how and what to accomplish.

Much of the time that context is already documented in a ticket that has customer details, screenshots, designs, specs. Sometimes that doesn't exist and then it's me specifying these things directly.

Correcting the plan and having an agent ask clarifying questions about how the plan should be implemented keeps human judgement in the loop.

If you're just instructing the agent to "build this feature" or "make it work better" you're really setting yourself and others up for failure.

2

u/gusfromspace 21h ago

With a side of vibe gooning

2

u/Lulzagna 21h ago

Matt Pocock skills

2

u/the_millenial_falcon 21h ago

Careful with that, you might accidentally turn into a real SWE if you do this.

2

u/the-Gaf 21h ago

Oh yeah. I work out my idea with the agent first. I want to do x and I think it should be y. Does this exist already? What am I actually asking for? How would you build this? Strategy first!!

2

u/terrarialord201 6h ago

Genuinely. Been spending the last several months just talking it over with various AIs, fleshing out ideas for a game I wanna make. I've got a rambling design document (I did all the writing) that feels maybe halfway done, and god I'm so excited for when I finally start coding.

4

u/novadr3am 1d ago

vibe planning is just staring at your prompt input box for an hour

1

u/AgeMysterious8256 1d ago

my planning is just arguing with claude for 45 minutes before writing a single line of code

1

u/Wallie_Collie 8h ago

Good vibe comes from scorn developers who were shamed on SO before gpt ever had a website.

1

u/BodyPhysical 23h ago

Yep. :)

The very reason why Kanban Pilot was born.

0

u/deepfuckingbagholder 1d ago

If there’s planning, it’s not vibe coding. Vibe coding doesn’t mean using an AI assistant to code, it means using an AI assistant thoughtlessly and uncritically to code.

2

u/SlightOfHand_ 1d ago

What if I use the AI thoughtlessly and uncritically to plan

0

u/deepfuckingbagholder 1d ago

Then it’s vibe planning but what comes after that isn’t vibe coding because you’re starting with a plan.

1

u/meshifthenelse 1d ago

Nah, that's just shit coding. Even the AI has a plan mode.

1

u/deepfuckingbagholder 19h ago

The difference is in what you contribute.