Unlocking My Software Dreams: How A.I. and Vibecoding Empowered My Creation Journey

I’m not a coder. I can’t write a single line of Python or JavaScript. Aside from a short phase in my teenage years when I built websites and played with Flash animations, I’ve never been a software engineer. I also have no plans to leave journalism for a tech career.

Yet, over the past few months, I’ve been dabbling in coding. I’ve created some handy tools: a program that transcribes and summarizes long podcasts, a system to organize my social media bookmarks, a website that checks if furniture fits in my car’s trunk, and an app called LunchBox Buddy. This app looks at what’s in my fridge and helps me decide what to pack for my son’s lunch.

All these projects are thanks to artificial intelligence and a new trend called “vibecoding.” Coined by A.I. researcher Andrej Karpathy, vibecoding lets anyone, even those without technical skills, build apps and websites simply by typing prompts. You don’t need to be a coder; having a good idea and a bit of patience is usually enough.

Mr. Karpathy captures it well: “It’s not really coding. I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy-paste stuff, and it mostly works.” My experiments focus on creating what I call “software for one”—simple, personalized apps that address unique everyday problems. These aren’t tools for a major tech company; they might lack some features and only partially work, but they fit my needs perfectly.



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Artificial Intelligence,Computers and the Internet,Mobile Applications,OpenAI Labs,Innovation,GitHub Inc,vibecoding