the gateway drug to r*tardation: vibe-coding
congrats - tutorial-hell has evolved. welcome to vibe-coding hell.
now instead of watching tutorials, you just spam tab in cursor, let claude write 6,379 lines and call yourself a 10x engineer.
you’re not. you’re just really good at pressing buttons.
what is vibe-coding hell
definition: vibe-coding hell is when you build a bunch of shit but learn nothing.
you’re making new features. you feel productive.
but your mental model of how software works is completely empty.
when the AI hallucinates (it will), you don’t know.
when it adds unnecessary complexity (it will), you can’t tell.
this is the new tutorial hell - except worse because you think you’ve actually been the one building things.
(in conclusion - you’re cooked.)
so how did we get here? and more importantly - how do we get out?
why fundamentals still matter (unfortunately)
here’s the part where i sound like your CS professor.
learning memory management, how operating systems work, RAM, databases, discrete math.
AI hasn’t taken your job - if you’re good, AI makes you better. you can offload the boring stuff, move faster, try more things.
if you suck, AI just helps you suck faster and at scale.
here’s the thing: the quality of output you get from AI depends entirely on the quality of questions you ask.
the better you understand systems, the better you can use AI to build them.
the worse you understand them, the more you’ll just generate impressive-looking garbage that falls apart in production.
the socratic AI approach
use AI like a socratic teacher, not a code monkey:
- ask it to explain concepts, not write your code
- ask it why something works, not just how
- ask it to point you to documentation and first principles
- make it ask YOU questions instead of giving you answers
TLDR: force the LLM to make you think.
frustration is a feature not a bug
learning needs to be uncomfortable.
tutorial hell let you avoid discomfort by watching someone else code.
vibe-coding hell lets you avoid discomfort by having AI write code for you.
both are cope mechanisms to avoid the actual hard part.
real learning happens when you’re stuck, frustrated, and most importantly - forced to problem-solve.
that’s when your actual neural network (the one in your skull) gets rewired.
when you feel stuck and want to just ask AI to fix it - that uncomfortable feeling is literally your brain building new neural pathways.
that’s not a bug in the learning process. that’s the entire point.
look - this doesn’t mean bad teaching is good. there are better and worse ways to explain concepts. good documentation is better than shit documentation.
but even when a concept is explained perfectly, you still need to wrestle with it yourself.
you need to use it in a new context. break it. fix it. understand why it broke.
no amount of AI-generated code will build that mental model for you.
when you skip the struggle by having AI write the code, you’re not avoiding the hard part.
you’re avoiding the ONLY part that matters.
how to escape vibe-coding hell (whatido)
okay so you’re stuck in vibe-coding hell. here’s the way out.
do the thing without letting something else do it for you.
while learning don’t use:
- AI autocomplete in your IDE/editor
- agent mode or agentic tools that writes code
do use:
- LLMs to answer questions, explain concepts, and give examples
- system prompts that push the LLM to ask questions using the socratic method
make the AI your teacher, not your ghostwriter - here’s a custom-prompt I use with Claude Code:
“you are a programming teacher. when i ask for help, don’t give me the answer. instead, ask me questions that help me figure it out myself. cite documentation and explain concepts from first principles. make me think.”
it’s more annoying. that’s the point.
build real projects (with your brain)
build it yourself. get stuck. RTFM. get unstuck. refactor.
go back and learn why your first attempt sucked.
use AI as a pair programmer, not a replacement brain:
you write the code. AI reviews it.
you debug the problem. AI helps you understand what’s happening.
your only edge in the AI age (in one sentence)
being able to actually build and maintain complex systems
that’s your edge.
the gap between “generates impressive demo” and “ships production software” has never been wider.
AI is a tool. a powerful one. but tools don’t replace skills.
they amplify them - so turn off the autocomplete for your learning projects.
write code that breaks. fix it yourself. understand why it broke.
build your mental model before you build your product.
or stay in vibe-coding hell forever, one tab-complete away from complete helplessness.
your call.