The Vibe Engineering Manifesto

We’ve been here before.

Forty-five years ago, I wrote my first line of code on an Apple II+. Since then, I’ve watched every revolution promise to change everything: object-oriented programming, the web, mobile, cloud, no-code, and now AI.

Each time, the same pattern: newcomers declare the old ways dead. Veterans dig in and resist. And somewhere in between, the people who actually build things figure out what works.

I’m not here to tell you AI changes nothing. It changes almost everything.

I’m also not here to tell you experience doesn’t matter anymore. It matters more than ever.

This is the Vibe Engineering manifesto. It’s what I believe after 45 years of shipping software and 18 months of building with AI. It’s a bet on a particular kind of builder—and a particular way of building.

The Vibe Coder Trap

There’s a movement right now. People with no engineering background are shipping apps in a weekend using AI. They call it “vibe coding”—prompting your way to a product without understanding what you’re building.

And honestly? I respect the hustle. The barriers to creation have never been lower. That’s genuinely good for the world.

But here’s what I’ve watched happen, over and over:

The app works in the demo. Then users show up. Edge cases appear. The database slows down. The authentication breaks in weird ways. The founder can’t debug it because they never understood it in the first place.

Vibe coders build demos. We build products.

The difference isn’t gatekeeping. It’s physics. Production systems have failure modes. Scale creates problems that don’t exist at small numbers. Security vulnerabilities hide in code you didn’t write and don’t understand.

AI doesn’t change these realities. It just makes it faster to create systems you can’t maintain.

The Experience Advantage

If you’ve spent years building software at scale, you have something AI can’t give the vibe coders: judgment.

You know why that “simple” feature is going to be a nightmare at 10x users. You can smell a bad architecture decision before it becomes technical debt. You understand that shipping is 20% of the work—production support is the other 80%.

You’ve been burned by the things that burn people. That scar tissue is valuable.

AI doesn’t replace experience. It amplifies it.

When I work with Claude Code, I’m not asking it to think for me. I’m using it to move faster on decisions I’ve already made. The AI handles the syntax; I handle the judgment. The AI writes the code; I validate whether it’s the right code.

This is the mental shift that matters: you’re not a coder anymore. You’re a director.

The vibe coders are asking AI to be the director and the crew. We’re asking AI to be the crew while we direct. That’s a fundamentally different relationship—and it produces fundamentally different results.

What We Believe

1. Build Fast AND Build Right

The industry created a false dichotomy: you can move fast, or you can build quality. Pick one.

We reject this.

With AI amplifying experienced engineers, we can have both. We can ship in days what used to take months—while maintaining the architectural discipline that lets us keep shipping for years.

Speed without quality is just technical debt you haven’t paid yet. Quality without speed is a product no one will ever use. We optimize for sustainable velocity: fast enough to learn, solid enough to last.

2. Stay in Your Lanes

AI is a force multiplier in domains you understand. It’s a chaos multiplier in domains you don’t.

When I build in Rails—a framework I’ve used for 15+ years—AI makes me 3-5x more productive. I can evaluate suggestions instantly because I know what good looks like. I can course-correct before small problems become big ones.

When I venture into technologies I don’t know? I’m just as lost as a beginner, except I’m moving faster toward a cliff I can’t see.

The rule: Use AI to go 10x faster in areas you know well. For new domains, learn the fundamentals first—then let AI accelerate you.

This is why we pick a stack and go deep. Rails. PostgreSQL. TailwindCSS. Cloudflare. Boring, proven, well-documented technologies that AI understands deeply and we understand deeply. No chasing shiny objects. No résumé-driven development.

3. Productionize Your Process

Every SaaS app is different. The process of building SaaS apps should be the same.

We treat software development as a production line. Same tools. Same patterns. Same deployment processes. Different products. Each project makes us faster at the next one.

This isn’t about being uncreative. It’s about reserving creativity for the things that matter—the product decisions, the user experience, the business model—instead of wasting it on infrastructure we’ve already solved.

Decide on a stack. Nail it. Scale it.

4. Build Moats Before AI Eats You

If you can build a SaaS app in a month with AI, so can everyone else. The barrier to entry has collapsed. Which means the barrier to competition has collapsed too.

This changes what matters:

Data moats: Does using the product generate data that makes the product better?
Network effects: Does it get better with more users?
Trust: Can you build relationships faster than a faceless competitor?
Speed: Can you iterate faster than anyone trying to copy you?

Generic CRUD apps are commodities now. AI can spin them up in hours. If your product doesn’t have something defensible—some reason it gets better over time, some reason users stick—you’re building on sand.

Build the moat early. Everything else is just a demo.

5. Make Small Bets

The math of solopreneurship is different from the math of startups.

Startups play power law games: swing for the fences, accept high failure rates, hope one bet pays off big enough to cover all the losses.

We play portfolio games: make many small bets, cut losers quickly, double down on winners, stack small wins into sustainable freedom.

The strategy:

One month of focused building per project
Real launch to real users by month end
90 days to show signs of life
If nothing? Archive it and move on

Some projects die quickly. That’s the plan. But some catch. And when they do, we pour fuel on them.

We don’t need unicorns. We need $10k, $20k, $50k/month across a portfolio of products that run themselves. Diversified. Resilient. Not dependent on any single bet paying off.

6. Build in Public

Transparency creates accountability. Sharing the process helps others. The wins feel better and the losses teach more when they’re witnessed.

But there’s another reason: trust is a moat.

Every build log, every honest failure, every real number we share—it’s building trust equity. By the time someone discovers a competitor, they already know us. They’ve watched us struggle and ship and learn. That relationship can’t be replicated by a landing page.

Building in public is marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing. It’s distribution that compounds. It’s a flywheel that gets stronger over time.

The Freedom We’re Building Toward

Let’s be honest about what this is really about.

I spent decades building other people’s dreams. Great companies, great people—but someone else’s vision, someone else’s timeline, someone else’s definition of success.

At 61, I’m asking: what does it look like to own my own time completely?

Vibe Engineering is my answer. One SaaS per month. Building in public. Documenting everything. Stacking small wins toward location independence and creative freedom.

Maybe yours looks different. Maybe it’s not Kauai; maybe it’s a cabin in the mountains or an apartment in Lisbon or just the freedom to take a Wednesday off without asking permission.

The destination matters less than the motion. What matters is building something that’s yours—something that generates value while you sleep, that doesn’t require your presence every hour, that compounds instead of depleting.

The experienced engineers who figure out AI-augmented development are going to build the next generation of bootstrapped businesses. Not venture-backed rockets to nowhere. Profitable, resilient products built by people who know what they’re doing.

The Invitation

This manifesto isn’t a set of rules. It’s a bet.

A bet that experience still matters—maybe more than ever.

A bet that speed and quality aren’t opposites.

A bet that small, sustainable wins beat lottery tickets.

A bet that the future belongs to builders who can direct AI, not just prompt it.

If that resonates—if you’re an experienced engineer who’s tired of building other people’s dreams—then maybe we should build alongside each other.

I’m not asking you to follow me. I’m inviting you to build with me. To share what’s working. To learn from each other’s failures. To prove that this path is real.

The vibe coders are having their moment. Let them.

We’re playing a different game. A longer game. A game that ends with freedom.

Build fast. Build right. Build in public.

Build something that’s yours.

— Bill Vibe Engineering November 2025