Vibe-Based Coding and the Art of Intuitive Creation

By Raji Mohanam

Most of us have been taught that good code comes from good planning. That robust applications emerge from detailed specifications, carefully drawn diagrams, and methodical implementation. We've inherited a mythology of the programmer as architect, building digital cathedrals with blueprints and precision.

But there is another way. It's called vibe-based coding, and it's about trusting the intelligence that lives in our fingers, our intuition, our felt sense of what wants to emerge.

Traditional programming education doesn't like to acknowledge that some of the most elegant code comes not from rigorous planning, but from a kind of creative surrender. From allowing the problem and solution to dance together until something beautiful emerges.

I remember the first time I experienced true vibe-coding. I was working on a personal project, nothing with deadlines. Just a vague idea about making something that could address a need I saw in social media posting. I started typing without knowing exactly where I was going. The code began to flow in ways that surprised me. Functions appeared that I hadn't planned. Patterns emerged that I didn't consciously design.

What struck me wasn't just the quality of what emerged, but how it felt to create it. There was an ease, a rhythm, an almost musical quality to the process. It reminded me of how jazz musicians talk about improvisation: not random chaos, but informed spontaneity. Years of practice and pattern recognition creating space for something genuinely new.

This is the heart of vibe-based coding: it's not anti-intellectual or anti-planning. It's about developing such fluency with tools and patterns that you can trust your intuition to guide technical choices. It's coding that honors both the analytical and the felt, the systematic and the spontaneous.

The beautiful thing about vibe-coding is that it doesn't require special software or expensive courses. It requires a shift in how we approach our tools and our practice.

Start with playgrounds. CodePen, JSFiddle, Observable: They're great spaces for experimentation without consequence. Spend time here not building toward anything specific, but exploring what feels interesting. Notice what draws your attention. Follow those threads.

Embrace the REPL. Whether it's Python's interactive shell, Node.js, or browser dev tools, live coding environments let you have conversations with your code. Ask questions, try things, see what responds. This back-and-forth dialogue is where vibe-coding thrives.

Learn creative coding frameworks. p5.js, Processing, Three.js: these tools were designed for exploration and expression. Even if you're building business applications, time spent in creative coding builds your intuitive vocabulary. You learn to sense possibility in code.

Practice constraint-based coding. Set artificial limits: build something in 100 lines or less, use only certain colors, work with a specific API. Constraints force you out of habitual patterns and into improvisational thinking.

Join communities that value process over product. Look for coding groups, online communities, or local meetups that celebrate experimentation. #100DaysOfCode, creative coding communities, or maker spaces where the question isn't "What did you ship?" but "What did you discover?"

The deepest tool for vibe-based coding is actually psychological. It's learning to sit comfortably with not knowing where you're going. To trust that your accumulated knowledge and pattern recognition will serve you even when you can't articulate the plan.

This requires unlearning some of what we've been taught about "professional" development. It means making space for approaches that feel less certain, less controllable, but often more alive.

When we code from vibe, something remarkable happens. The applications we build feel more human, more responsive to actual needs rather than anticipated requirements. There's a quality of presence in vibe-coded projects. They feel alive in ways that over-architected solutions sometimes don't.

Vibe-coding doesn't need to mean abandoning rigor or professionalism. It can actually expand our definition of what technical excellence can look like. Some of the most innovative products, the most delightful user experiences, the most elegant solutions come from developers who learned to trust both their analytical minds and their creative instincts.

Now, when I sit down to vibe code and that familiar feeling of not-knowing arises, I lean into it rather than away. I start typing and let something emerge. Today, there's room for all kinds of coding, the planned and the spontaneous as well as the systematic and the intuitive. Let's embrace it!