Vibe coding from a non-programmer’s perspective

For Wired, Lauren Goode spent a day vibe-coding at Notion:

The next assignment was as open-ended as Lucy’s was specific: to build whatever I wanted. The freedom was unnerving, a Rorschach test for vibe coders. What did I see when I looked at the blinking cursor? I decided that there should be a way for Notion users to draft an “intelligent” to-do list in one step. They would be able to flick open the app and type “to do reorder pet food” and Notion AI would know what they meant. I also wanted this feature to avoid duplicate items from other recent to-do lists.

I was crushing it. I was a responsible babysitter for code, watching it cascade in front of my eyes and then toddle its way into the world. Except, my logic was wrong. My to-do list hack was somehow allowing for endless duplicates instead of avoiding them. Who was to blame: me or the AI?

A product designer named Brian talked me through it. “Pretend you’re talking to a smart intern,” he said. Again with the interns.

Kudos for not using “magic” even once.