Picture this: you've written a function that calculates the square root of a number. Feed it the input 16, and you'll get 4 back every single time—guaranteed. This predictability is the bedrock of traditional software testing, where unit tests verify that each piece of code behaves exactly as expected with surgical precision. Now imagine a...
Category: Development
Prompt sets are the new PRDs: How AI is fundamentally rewiring product development
The humble Product Requirements Document (PRD) has been the backbone of software development for decades. These lengthy documents outlined features, user stories, and technical specifications in painstaking detail before a single line of code was written. But according to Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer at Microsoft, that era is rapidly coming to an end. "I...
The Specification Revolution: How AI is Flipping Software Development Upside Down
For decades, software development has followed a familiar pattern: gather requirements, write specifications, then build the code that makes those specs reality. The specification was scaffolding—useful for planning, essential for alignment, but ultimately discarded once the "real work" of coding began. But as AI coding assistants become more sophisticated, a new paradigm is emerging that...
Vibe coding 101: How to build software by talking to AI (without setting your project on fire)
The explosive rise of large language models (LLMs) has given birth to a new kind of developer: the vibe coder. Unlike the meticulous, line-by-line craftsperson of an earlier era, the vibe coder engages in a conversational dance with an AI partner. You describe what you want in plain English, the AI generates code, and you...
In Defense of “Vibe Coding”: Why Your Personal Scripts Don’t Need to Pass Code Review
The term "vibe coding" doesn't appear in any computer science textbook, but ask any developer who's spent time with ChatGPT, Claude, or GitHub Copilot and they'll know exactly what you mean. It's that flow state where you're rapidly iterating with an AI assistant, throwing together solutions that work right now for the problem right in...
12-Factor Agents: A Blueprint for Reliable LLM Applications
Generative AI’s “agent” craze promised software that could reason and act autonomously, but early reality didn’t live up to the hype. Many teams found that beyond impressive demos, these AI agents often hit a wall around 70–80% reliability – prone to looping, making malformed tool calls, or losing track of state . Dex Horthy, an...
Coding for AI Agents vs. Coding for Human Developers
As AI coding assistants and autonomous agents (often powered by large language models) become more involved in software development, best practices in coding must account for a new “audience.” Traditionally, code is written by and for human developers, emphasizing readability and maintainability for people. In contrast, code intended to be generated or maintained by AI...
The Rise of Vibe Coding and Hyper-Personalized Apps (N=1 Software)
Vibe coding is a new approach to software creation where you describe what you want in natural language and let AI generate the code – essentially coding by feel or “vibe” rather than explicit syntax . The term was coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy in early 2025 to describe “a new kind of coding...
Vibe Coding: A Successor to literate Programming?
Literate programming and vibe coding represent two distinct paradigms in software development, emerging in different eras with different motivations. Literate programming was introduced by Donald Knuth in the 1980s as a way to write programs as works of literature – focusing on explanation and human readability over machine-oriented structure (Donald Knuth). In contrast, vibe coding...
Vibe Coding in Software Engineering
Vibe coding is a programming approach where developers rely on intuition and an organic “flow” state rather than formal planning or strict methodologies. In practice, this often means jumping straight into coding with minimal upfront design or documentation. Advocates argue that this free-form style can boost creativity and speed, but it also raises concerns in...
