HOT TAKE ⚡ JUST IN — 2 hours ago

VIBE CODING IS HERE — AND YOUR JUNIOR DEV JOB JUST DIED

Last week, a product manager with zero coding experience shipped a working app in 3 hours. He didn't write a single line of code. He just... described what he wanted. Welcome to vibe coding. The wall between "ideas" and "working software" just disappeared.

🎯 Jimmy's Take: If you're a junior developer making $60K to write CRUD apps, you have 6-12 months to level up or become obsolete. The middle is being hollowed out. Senior devs become 10x more valuable. Everyone else? Replaced by a text box.

What the Hell Is "Vibe Coding"?

Three days ago, Andrej Karpathy — former AI director at Tesla, OpenAI founding member — tweeted this:

"There's a new kind of coding I call 'vibe coding', where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists."

Translation? You describe what you want in plain English. The AI builds it. You iterate by talking to it. The code becomes invisible — just a means to an end.

It's not programming anymore. It's wish fulfillment.

I Tried It. It Actually Works.

I'm not a developer. I know enough HTML to be dangerous and enough JavaScript to know I hate it.

So I grabbed Codex and described what I wanted:

"Build me a simple price tracker that monitors Amazon prices and emails me when they drop. Use a clean UI. Dark mode. Store data in a JSON file."

Forty-seven minutes later? Working app.

Not perfect. Not production-grade. But functional. It tracked prices. It sent emails. It looked decent.

Six months ago, that project would've taken me 3 weekends and a lot of Stack Overflow tears. Now? One coffee and a conversation.

Why Junior Devs Should Be Terrified

Here's the brutal math:

  • Before: Companies hired junior devs to build simple features, fix bugs, write tests. It was how you learned.
  • After: One senior dev with AI assistance does the work of 3-4 juniors. Why hire the junior?

The entry-level jobs that taught generations of programmers? They're evaporating.

It's not that AI replaces all developers. It replaces the repetitive, well-defined, junior-friendly work that used to be the on-ramp to the industry.

That on-ramp is now a trap door.

The New Hierarchy (Read This Carefully)

Winners:

  • Senior developers who understand architecture, systems thinking, and how to evaluate AI-generated code
  • Product-minded people who can translate business needs into clear AI instructions
  • AI-native developers who grew up with these tools and think in "vibes" not syntax

Losers:

  • Junior devs doing ticket-by-ticket feature work
  • Bootcamp grads with shallow skills
  • Anyone whose value was "I can write code that compiles"

The bar just got raised. Way up.

But Here's the Opportunity

If you're smart, this isn't an ending. It's a shortcut.

Remember when "learning to code" meant memorizing syntax, debugging semicolons, and understanding memory management?

That grind is gone. The AI handles it.

Now you can skip straight to the good stuff:

  • Understanding what users actually need
  • Designing systems that scale
  • Evaluating whether code is good (not just functional)
  • Knowing which AI output to trust and which to reject

The "vibe coder" who understands what good software looks like will outpace the traditional developer who just knows how to write code.

The Uncomfortable Truth

I've talked to 12 developers this week about vibe coding. Here's the split:

  • 4 are terrified — they know their job is at risk
  • 5 are in denial — "AI can't replace real programming"
  • 3 are excited — they're already 10x more productive

Which group are you in?

Because here's what the denial crowd is missing: It doesn't matter if AI replaces ALL developers. It only matters if it replaces YOUR specific job.

And if your job involves writing routine code based on clear requirements? Yeah. That's exactly what AI does best.

What You Do Right Now

Don't panic. Adapt.

  1. Learn the tools. Spend 10 hours with Codex, Claude, or Cursor. Actually build something. Feel the power.
  2. Level up your thinking. Focus on architecture, product sense, and code review. The AI is your junior dev now — you need to be the senior who guides it.
  3. Build in public. Show what you made with AI. The developers who embrace this publicly will get hired. The ones who hide will be left behind.

The era of "learn to code" as a path to job security is over.

The era of "learn to build" is here.

And the people who figure out how to vibe with AI? They're about to run circles around everyone else.

Posted 2 hours ago. Last updated 30 minutes ago as new data came in. Jimmy is currently testing 3 more AI coding tools and will report back.