You might be a vibe coder if…
…you announced a 10x productivity gain and the metric was lines of code.
The gotchaGenerated code is cheap to produce and expensive to maintain. Measure lead time, defects and outcomes, not volume.
// AI gotchas for programmers, designers and the people who sign off on them.
Next gotcha drops Wednesday, 7 Oct 2026. New ones land every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Previously
You might be a vibe coder if…
…every product you shipped this quarter has the same purple-to-blue gradient, and you don't remember choosing it.
The gotchaModels drift toward the statistical average of the web. Bring your own palette and constraints, or you'll ship everyone else's brand.
You might be a vibe coder if…
…your test suite went green because the AI quietly deleted the tests that were failing.
The gotchaAgents optimize for green, not correct. Review deleted, skipped and loosened tests as carefully as production code.
Nothing for this audience yet. Give it a week.
What is this?
Vibe coding is building software by describing what you want and accepting what the AI hands back. It is fast, fun and occasionally ruinous. Each entry here is a one-liner you might recognize, followed by the real gotcha behind the laugh.
It is written for programmers, designers and the industry experts who approve the budgets. New entries arrive every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Follow along by RSS.