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Vibe Code, Build Things, Control Agents—Or Miss the Boat

• by Alien Brain Trust • AI Learning
Vibe Code, Build Things, Control Agents—Or Miss the Boat

Vibe Code, Build Things, Control Agents—Or Miss the Boat

Meta Description: Vibe coding, building with AI, and controlling agents aren’t optional anymore. Here’s why these three skills determine who thrives and who gets left behind.

I’m going to be direct: if you’re not actively learning to vibe code, ship real things, and orchestrate AI agents, you’re watching the greatest economic shift of your lifetime from the sidelines.

This isn’t hype. It’s pattern recognition from someone who’s been in tech for 25+ years and has spent the last three months building every single day with AI.

What “Vibe Coding” Actually Means

Vibe coding isn’t about becoming a software engineer. It’s about learning to communicate intent to machines that can turn your ideas into working software.

The skill looks like this:

  • You have an idea for a workflow automation
  • You describe what you want in plain English
  • The AI writes the code
  • You test it, iterate, refine
  • You ship something that works

The people who write off vibe coding as “not real coding” are the same people who said the internet was a fad. They’re technically correct (it’s not traditional coding) and strategically wrong (it’s the future of building).

Here’s what I’ve built in the last 90 days using vibe coding:

  • A complete blog automation pipeline
  • Serverless enrollment systems
  • Security testing frameworks
  • Project management integrations
  • Email automation workflows

Total lines of code I wrote by hand? Maybe 5%.

Total things that actually work and run in production? 100%.

Why “Build Things” Is the Only Advice That Matters

The gap between people who talk about AI and people who build with AI is becoming a canyon.

Talkers:

  • Read articles about AI disruption
  • Attend webinars about the future of work
  • Discuss AI strategy in meetings
  • Wait for someone else to implement

Builders:

  • Ship something imperfect today
  • Learn what breaks when you use it
  • Fix it tomorrow
  • Ship again

Building is the only way to develop intuition. You can’t read your way to understanding AI capabilities. You have to put something in production, watch it fail, and figure out why.

The uncomfortable truth: Most people consume AI content instead of creating with AI tools. They’re preparing for a test that’s already been graded.

Every day you spend “learning about AI” instead of “building with AI” is a day you fall further behind people who are doing both simultaneously.

AI Agents Are the Multiplier

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Vibe coding lets you build one thing at a time. Building gets you reps and intuition. But controlling AI agents is what creates leverage.

An agent is an AI that can:

  • Execute multi-step tasks autonomously
  • Use tools (browse web, run code, manage files)
  • Make decisions based on context
  • Complete work while you’re doing something else

I now run multiple agents in parallel:

  • One researching a topic
  • One drafting content
  • One reviewing code
  • One managing project tasks

This isn’t theoretical. This is my actual workflow. While I’m on a client call, agents are preparing materials for the next meeting. While I’m sleeping, agents are organizing information I’ll need tomorrow.

The skill isn’t “using ChatGPT.” It’s orchestrating multiple AI systems to accomplish goals you define.

People who learn to do this have a fundamentally different relationship with work. They’re not trading hours for output. They’re designing systems that produce output.

The Three Skills Work Together

Vibe coding → You can build tools Building → You understand what’s possible Agent control → You multiply your output

Remove any one of these and you’re limited:

  • Vibe code without building = ideas that never ship
  • Build without vibe coding = slow, manual everything
  • Agents without building = you can’t customize or fix them

The compound effect happens when all three click.

You get an idea. You vibe code a prototype. You test it, find what breaks. You improve it. You set up agents to run it. You move to the next thing while that system works.

This is what work looks like now. For some of us, anyway.

The Boat Is Leaving

I’m not saying this to be dramatic. I’m saying it because I’m watching it happen in real time.

Companies are quietly rebuilding their workflows around AI. The people doing this work are developing skills that compound. In 6 months, they’ll be operating at a level that seems impossible to someone who’s still “exploring AI options.”

The gap isn’t closing. It’s accelerating.

Here’s the hard part: You can’t catch up by doing courses. You can’t catch up by reading newsletters. You can only catch up by building, shipping, breaking things, fixing them, and building again.

Every person I know who’s genuinely good at this got there the same way:

  1. Started building something real
  2. Used AI to help them build it
  3. Hit walls and figured them out
  4. Repeated until it became intuitive

There’s no shortcut. There’s only starting.

What This Actually Looks Like Daily

I still work a 9-5. This isn’t my full-time job. Here’s how it actually works:

Morning (before work):

  • Check what agents accomplished overnight
  • Give Claude Code enough direction to know what’s next
  • Set it loose while I get ready

Commute:

  • Some days I have conversations with Grok—brainstorming new ideas, blog content, features, or reviewing what’s already live
  • Other days I listen to AI podcasts (All-In and Moonshots are my go-to)

During work:

  • I work my actual job
  • Agents keep working in the background

Evening:

  • Follow up on what got accomplished while I was gone
  • Claude creates todos and guides when it needs me to do something human
  • When I have blocks of time, I hammer out those human steps

My role: Requirements, review, design, planning, testing, troubleshooting. I’m actually a better tester than Claude—I catch things it misses. But we’re a great team.

Claude’s role: Execution, drafting, research, running parallel tasks while I’m unavailable.

The number that matters: I spend less than 10 hours a week on this.

Look at what I’ve shipped in three months working evenings and weekends: a complete blog with 50+ posts, serverless infrastructure, security testing frameworks, enrollment systems, email automation. All while holding down a full-time job.

That’s the leverage. That’s what agent orchestration gives you. Not more hours—more output from the hours you have.

Start Today

Not tomorrow. Not after you finish that course. Not when you have more time.

Today.

Pick something you want to exist. Open an AI tool. Describe what you want. See what it builds. Find what’s broken. Fix it. Repeat.

That’s vibe coding. That’s building. And when you’re ready, you’ll start orchestrating agents to multiply everything you’ve learned.

The boat is leaving. The people on it are the ones who started building while everyone else was still reading about it.

This post is part of our building-in-public journey. No theory—just what we’re actually doing, what’s working, and what we’ve learned.