Vibe coding may feel trendy, but for serious programmers, it’s a risky shortcut. Instead, pairing with AI as a coding partner allows you to stay in control—using AI to assist, not replace, your thinking. Treat AI like a teammate in your Scrum team: ask specific questions, review outputs, and always own the final outcome.

Everyone is chasing vibe coding. Talking about zoning out, letting AI write code while they sip coffee and blast music. Sounds cool. But if you’re a programmer—it’s a trap and you owe yourself (and your team) better.

This week, I found myself reflecting on this based on two distinct conversations,

→ Conversation 1 - “Darn it. I didn’t commit to Git. Now I can’t recover what AI wrote.” (Novice mistake, but common when frenzy > discipline.)

→ Conversation 2 - “Development has slowed a bit since I’m being more deliberate with how I use AI.” (Seasoned, but battling the temptation of speed.)

Project - I needed to integrate Stripe into our B2C app (React frontend, Python FastAPI backend).

I could’ve vibe coded my way through it. Instead, I chose to pair program—with AI.

Here’s how that played out:

→ Asked ChatGPT for Stripe integration guidance → Got clear instructions and sample code → Brought it into Cursor (my Dev IDE) → Reviewed, removed bloat, modified by hand to understand it better → Took 4 hours across 2 days (while doing other things) → Now? Ready to merge confidently into the codebase

No surprises. No black box code. No guesswork.

Here’s my take when you work with AI

Don’t vibe code and treat as a magic want instead use when it as your thinking partner and pair programmer.

Think of it like adding a new person to your Scrum team. You wouldn’t ask Freddy (your Frontend Dev) and Bobby (Backend Dev) random, broad questions and expect magic. You’d ask focused questions. Guide the discussion. Own the direction.

Same with AI.

You’re the pilot. These tools are copilots. And when (not if) they don’t work (and they won’t) — you need to take the controls.

AI is here to help you think, not to think for you. If you treat it like a black box—dumping vague prompts and copy-pasting outputs—you’ll end up with code you can’t explain, scale, or debug. Own the work. Understand the why. Ship with confidence.

#AIMusings #VibeCoding #PairProgramming

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