Vibe Coding

by Gene Kim, Steve Yegge

Posted by Anton Katunin on 25 February 2026
Tags: books, 1 star

This book was recommended, and I was very excited about it. It turned out to be a big disappointment. The book has some good bits and insights here and there, though. I enjoyed some of the analogies with the kitchen. I'm saying some because it talks more about a kitchen than coding.

The authors bring a lot of stories from their personal experience, which is very limited and not useful. I feel the authors are not active software engineers, so they can only provide surface-level opinions. It seems like a big part of the book is hype because there is little said apart from many things will change.

The book contradicts itself. First, it says you don't need to review code because you will be generating faster than you can review. But then it says it could completely mess up your project, so you must review and check every change.

I would categorise this book somewhere between bad and AI slop. The text is beautifully written, probably the best I've read; however, it lacks substance. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I hope I'll find a better book on Vibe Coding.


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