Field Notes for the Vibe Coder.
A free, opinionated series for builders working with AI coding tools. Each volume picks one part of the development life and walks four lanes of decisions and three real projects — same projects, different constraints, different answers. Volumes 01–03 are below; volume 04+ is for subscribers.
Available volumes
Choosing Your Stack
Every app comes down to four decisions: where you write the code, where it's stored, where it runs, and where its data lives. Three example projects show how the picks shift with the constraint.
Security & Redundancy
The boring stuff that saves the project. Secrets, access, backups, recovery — and the #1 way new developers actually get burned.
From Prototype to Production
"It works on my laptop" is the most expensive sentence in software. Launch readiness, operations, observability, and the feedback loop that makes the next version better.
Working with AI Agents
AI is a force multiplier on whatever you bring. Sharper builders use it to ship faster; sloppy builders use it to ship more bugs. The skill is the loop, not the tool.
When to Call for Help
Solo is brave. Partnered is sustainable. The hardest skill is recognizing when your code needs a second pair of eyes — and how to scope the engagement so it actually succeeds.
How HRC Scores Your Code
The 10-category rubric we apply to every paid code review, published in full. Weights, letter-grade thresholds, severity levels, and what an A-tier codebase actually looks like.
The Sycophancy Tax
Why a free LLM code review won't replace a calibrated one. An honest accounting of what AI code review delivers, what it structurally can't, and the historical pattern (Cursor vs Copilot, Stripe vs banks) that decides where the line is drawn.
In Defense of the Vibe Coder
The industry sneers at vibe coders for the security holes. The sneer mistakes a closeable gap for a fatal flaw — and misses that AI-assisted building is the biggest expansion of who gets to build software since the spreadsheet.
Get future volumes the day they ship.
Volumes 04 and beyond are for subscribers — working with AI agents, when to call for help, scaling past the first stack. One email per release. Unsubscribe in one click.