Comment: All vibe coding tools are selling the illusion of quick wealth.

For mature software engineers, it's easy to sniff out the marketing of vibe coding tools and see what they are really selling. This article comes from the blog post "all vibe coding tools are selling a get rich quick scheme" by software developer Varun Raghu, translated, rewritten, and organized by BlockTempo. (Background: a16z predicts: Will vibe coding lead to a winner-takes-all scenario?) (Background supplement: Winning without programming! He swept through 200 hackathons with AI "Vibe Coding") I previously wrote an article explaining why I would no longer do vibe coding. Now I don't even want to call it vibe coding anymore; I actually somewhat dislike this term because it gives the impression that this isn't a process that requires investment. In reality, it requires a lot of investment; you can't just "wing it" based on feelings. The various tools continually peddling the dream that "with just a few simple commands, you can create your own billion-dollar startup" are actually just deceiving people. Yes, all of them. Trust me, I've tried most of these tools. You can't just fool people into thinking they can create a smartphone or a car with just a little effort—yet somehow, you can convince them that with minimal effort, they can build a world-class software product and potentially earn thousands. This is pure fraud. Initially, I was quite hopeful, thinking that with my limited technical skills, I could finally "get started." But after a few months of trying different platforms, entering countless prompts, and spending hundreds of dollars, my conclusion is: it’s simply impossible. These tools only give you the illusion that "you can code." Now the only time I use Cursor is to tweak the appearance of my landing page. That's simply because I was already good at front-end and design; this is a skill I already possess, and I'm just using AI to speed up the process. Will these AI coding tools get better? Can I really use vibe code to create products in the future? Maybe one day. But as of now, the whole industry is just engaging in fraud; everyone has been fooled. (End of article) Author's Bio Varun Raghu is an entrepreneur who describes himself as a "builder, generalist, tinkerer," currently active in Chicago, USA, focusing on AI product development. He has previously worked in product marketing at Freshworks and Cloudflare, and is currently exploring AI applications at Triad Labs. He also runs a personal blog sharing his views and experiences on technology, AI tools, and software development, writing commentary articles on topics like "vibe coding." His professional background includes full-stack development, AI integration, product development, and extensive experience in software project management and technical writing. Varun also worked as a software engineer at Cascaid and holds a master's degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Why is the author so disappointed? The recent wave of popularity in AI coding tools continues the narrative of "decentralization" seen throughout the history of technological development. From Web 2.0's "anyone can become a media outlet" to Web3's crypto assets allowing "anyone to issue tokens and establish decentralized economies," and now to the notion that "with just a few prompts, you can create a unicorn startup." This vision is extremely attractive, especially for non-professionals, as if it were a fast track to wealth and a life-changing opportunity. In reality, however, the technical reality is sobering. AI coding tools can indeed significantly speed up basic programming tasks, such as automatically generating template code, assisting with debugging, or optimizing interface design. However, creating a product that can genuinely enter the market still requires complex system architecture design, security and performance considerations, as well as cross-platform integration capabilities. These are not tasks that can be accomplished solely by AI. In other words, AI tools can accelerate processes, but they cannot replace professional engineers. This gap is particularly easy to mislead in the software field. For the public, the difficulty of physically building a smartphone or a car is intuitive, but the challenges of creating software products are hidden. This creates a common illusion: writing code seems like just a matter of a few lines of code (still relying on AI to help you write), and it seems that success can be achieved without much investment. But the reality of software products requires architecture design, maintenance, user experience... knowledge that vibe coding cannot provide. The marketing of AI coding tools exploits this illusion, leading people to believe that as long as they can prompt, they can effortlessly develop world-class applications. However, the author does not negate the fact that vibe coding can actually help many people quickly get started with programming. At the very least, these tools provide a good vibe (atmosphere) for many who do not know how to code. Related Reports OpenAI reportedly spent $3 billion to acquire the "automated programming tool Windsurf," targeting the lucrative Vibe Coding market. Ghibli, AGI, Vibe-coding, video generation... a summary of the top 10 AI application trends this year. [Commentary] "All vibe coding tools are selling the illusion of quick wealth" was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.