I Used to Write Code, Now I Just Vibe
and trying to build ERP's in week's not months!
Where It All Began: A Kid from Hanamkonda
I was born in Hanamkonda, Warangal in 1989, but my story with coding didn't begin until much later. While the tech world was evolving through the 90s with the rise of the internet and the dot-com boom, I was just a kid growing up in India, unaware of how computers would shape my future.
The 90s were the era of "code warriors" – developers working with C and C++, managing memory manually, and celebrating all-nighters to ship products on physical disks. Software development was still seen as a mysterious art practiced by a select few. But that world was about to change dramatically.
My First Encounter with Computers (2002-2003)
My journey began during summer holidays in 2002-2003, when my dad introduced me to computers. I still remember the fascination I felt seeing that beige box whirring to life, the distinct sound of dial-up internet, and the magic of moving a cursor around the screen.
What started as summer holiday exploration quickly grew into genuine interest. While my friends were playing cricket in summer holidays, I started setting up my blogs, understand how to build websites, I found myself drawn to this machine, internet and its seemingly infinite possibilities.
Learning to Code from the Library (2006-2007)
By 2006, I was spending hours at the central computer library in Warangal during my summer holidays.
The library became my sanctuary – a place where I could learn, experiment, and grow. I'd walk there after classes, eager to get more screen time and absorb everything I could about programming.
I still remember poring over thick manuals, following tutorials, and the pure joy of making something work after hours of troubleshooting. The internet was becoming more accessible, forums were virtual discussion rooms for troubleshooting issues.
A pivotal moment came when I was introduced to Ubuntu. Getting my hands on this Linux distribution opened up an entirely new world of possibilities. Then came PyCon India - my first real exposure to the vibrant community behind open source. These experiences weren't just about learning new technologies; they connected me with a global movement and philosophy. Suddenly, I wasn't just coding in isolation anymore – I was part of something larger, with countless resources and minds to learn from. The open source community created opportunities I couldn't have imagined when I was walking to that library in Warangal.
Navigating Through Different Tech Stacks
As my skills grew, so did my toolkit. I found myself working with WordPress, Drupal, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Yii, and Moodle. Each new technology was a world to explore, with its own philosophy and approach to solving problems.
What made my journey unique was that I experienced it through two lenses: as a developer writing code and as an entrepreneur building consulting companies. Helping founders turn their visions into reality gave me a perspective many developers missed – understanding not just how to code, but why we were coding and what problems we were really solving.
Those dual perspectives taught me that great software isn't just about clean code or clever algorithms, but about understanding human needs and building solutions that actually make a difference.
The Evolution I Witnessed First-Hand
Through the 2010s, I watched and participated as development tools grew increasingly sophisticated:
IDEs transformed from glorified text editors to intelligent assistants
GitHub changed how we collaborated on code
The cloud revolutionized deployment, freeing us from worrying about hardware
Mobile development exploded, creating new platforms and paradigms
JavaScript evolved from a simple scripting language to powering complex applications
Each shift made development more accessible and powerful, but still required writing most code by hand. Even with frameworks and libraries, the core implementation work came from our fingers hitting keyboards.
The AI Assistant Revolution (2022-2024)
Around 2020, something fundamental began changing. GitHub Copilot appeared, offering suggestions that seemed almost prescient. ChatGPT and other LLMs emerged as debugging partners. The line between human and machine contributions started blurring.
Tasks that once took days now took a few hours. But this was just the beginning.
The Vibe Coding Era (2025….)
And now, here we are in 2025 – the era of "vibe coding." As Andrej Karpathy describes it, this means "fully giving in to the vibes," a complete paradigm shift in how we approach development.
What Is Vibe Coding?
For me, vibe coding has meant:
Embracing AI to write 95%+ of my codebase rather than treating it as an occasional helper
Shifting from identifying as a programmer to functioning as a "product engineer"
Achieving 10-100x productivity gains by fully leaning into AI coding tools
My Essential Toolkit
My current tools of choice are decidedly streamlined:
Replit - An all-in-one, browser-based development environment
Claude 3.7 - As I explore this potent combination in March 2025
Right now, I'm putting this stack to the ultimate test - building an entire ERP system through vibe coding. It's ambitious, but that's exactly why it's the perfect project to push the boundaries of what's possible with this approach.
Other popular tools in the vibe coding ecosystem include:
Cursor - A popular IDE with comprehensive code understanding
Windsurf - For indexing and navigating entire codebases
Claude 3.5 Sonnet/3 Opus - Reliable models for everyday coding tasks
Claude 01/03 - Specialized reasoning models for complex debugging
ChatGPT - Particularly useful for reasoning through problems
My New Workflow
Vibe coding hasn't just changed my tools – it's transformed my entire approach:
Roll not fix - I've learned rewriting is often faster than debugging; I just retry from scratch
Prompt in parallel - Running multiple AI sessions on different features simultaneously
Rapid iteration over perfection - Getting something working quickly and refining later
Human taste over coding skill - My judgment and product sense matter more than typing speed
The productivity difference is staggering. Projects that would have taken my team months in 2015 now take days or weeks. MVPs can be created in a weekend.
Where Vibe Coding Works Best
From my experience building consulting companies and helping founders, I've found this approach works best for:
Zero-to-one product development when speed is everything
Feature prototyping and rapid iteration
Projects where scale isn't an immediate concern
Simple to moderately complex applications
Modern, well-documented frameworks
The Human Element: Still Irreplaceable
Despite how much AI can do, my journey has taught me that certain human skills remain essential:
System thinking and architecture - AI still struggles with big-picture design
Product taste and user empathy - Understanding what people actually need
Quality assessment - Judging whether generated code is truly good
Debugging - Finding and fixing subtle issues
The "why" and "what" versus the "how" - Purpose over implementation
Scaling Beyond the MVP
As a consultant helping founders, I've learned important lessons about scaling applications built with vibe coding:
Technical debt accumulates faster - Plan strategic refactoring
Complex infrastructure needs systems thinkers - Some specialties remain critical
Critical systems may need traditional approaches - Not everything should be "vibed"
Balance speed with architecture - Quick development must consider the long term
The Future of Development
Looking ahead from 2025, I see fascinating changes coming to our industry:
Technical interviews will transform - I expect questions like "What's your vibe coding velocity?" replacing algorithm puzzles
The definition of "good developer" will shift - From coding mechanics to system thinking and prompt engineering
AI collaboration will become more intuitive - The human-AI interface will grow increasingly seamless
Programming education will be reimagined - Teaching how to direct AI rather than syntax details
From Warangal to the World
When I started writing code in my early days, I could never have imagined the journey ahead – from writing my first HTML tags to directing AI systems to build entire applications.
The constants through this journey have been curiosity and adaptation. The willingness to learn new approaches, to throw away old habits when better ones emerge, and to focus on creating value rather than clinging to familiar tools.
That kid from Hanamkonda who fell in love with computers during summer holidays has witnessed an incredible transformation in how we build software. And while the tools and methods have changed dramatically, the core remains the same: using technology to solve human problems.
As we embrace the vibe coding era, I'm more excited than ever about what we can build. The barriers to turning ideas into reality have never been lower. The future belongs to those who can collaborate effectively with AI while maintaining the human judgment, creativity, and empathy that gives technology its purpose.
What's your coding journey been like? Have you started embracing vibe coding in your work? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below.
Credit: Many of the vibe coding concepts shared in this post were originally found in a LinkedIn forward that has been tremendously helpful in my understanding and adaptation to this new paradigm. The original breakdown of vibe coding, essential tools, workflow changes, and human elements has provided a valuable framework for my current experiments with this approach.