Vibe Coding vs. Real Coding: Why Understanding Frameworks Matters (Even When AI Does the Work)

There's a conversation happening right now in developer communities around the world. It's uncomfortable. It's contentious. And it's absolutely necessary.

The conversation is this: AI coding agents are making it too easy to build things without actually understanding what you're building. They argue that vibe coders are creating sloppy code.

What is vibe coding?

So conventional coders can be coders using AI and the great distinction between a coder using AI and vibe coding is that vibe coding is just going with the vibe, with the flow, don't care to understand anything and just relies straight on AI. Developers who've spent years mastering frameworks, databases, security practices, and architecture are watching junior developers (and non-coders) generate entire web applications by typing casual prompts into tools like Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT. They say the code is sloppy. They say it's insecure. They say it lacks architectural thinking. They say developers are just "vibing" and hoping something works.

And you know what? They're not entirely wrong.

A developer can absolutely prompt an AI, get a beautiful-looking web app, deploy it, and have zero idea what actually happened under the hood. No understanding of React hooks. No idea what a context window is. No grasp of database queries. No clue how authentication actually works. No understanding of how Git tracks changes or why security matters.

That's a problem, especially when you're building for customers, for your employer, or for anything that actually matters.

But here's the thing the skeptics are missing: AI coding agents aren't the problem. Using them without understanding is.

So I think one needs to really distinguish what a vibe coder is. It is somebody that vibe codes and not learn as he vibe code. Not upskill himself in the tools, the framework, the AI planning, Cursor rules, and so many other things. If this is a vibe coder and it seems that is what skill programmers talk about, then that most definitely is not who we are.

The question isn't whether to use AI for coding. That ship has sailed. The question is: how do you use AI for coding responsibly? What does AI do? AI accelerates your upskilling 10x as well as your coding.

That's what Rebel Glitch AI is actually teaching.

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1. The "Vibe Coder" Problem Is Real

Let's be honest about what's happening.

There are absolutely developers (and non-developers) who are grabbing Cursor, throwing together a prompt, getting back a fully functional web app, and shipping it without understanding a single line. They're profitable in the short term. They look impressive. They can point to a deployed app.

But here's where it falls apart:

The code breaks. When requirements change, they can't modify the code intelligently. They ask the AI again. The AI generates something that contradicts the previous code. Conflicts emerge. They don't understand the codebase anymore.

Security gets compromised. They don't understand authentication flows. They don't know about SQL injection. They don't understand environment variables or API key management. They ship applications that are vulnerable, and they don't even know it.

The architecture collapses. They built a frontend that talks to a backend, but they don't understand the contract between them. When the database schema changes, the frontend breaks in ways they can't debug.

Scaling fails. They built something that works for 10 users but falls apart at 1,000 users. They don't understand databases, caching, or async operations. The app that looked beautiful last month is now a disaster.

Maintenance becomes impossible. Six months later, they can't modify the code because they don't understand what it does. They can't debug because they don't know where to look. They can't optimise because they don't understand performance implications.

This isn't fear-mongering. This is what happens when you treat an AI agent like a magic wand instead of a powerful tool that requires expertise to wield properly.

The long-time programmers who are sceptical? They've seen this movie before. They've watched bad code get written, deployed, and then become a liability for years.

So they're right to be concerned.

But they're wrong about the solution.

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2. The Rebel Glitch Approach: Understanding + AI Acceleration

Here's what most "AI coding" platforms teach:

"Here's an AI tool. Here are some cool prompts. Ship things fast."

That's vibe coding. That's the problem.

Here's what Rebel Glitch AI teaches:

"You need to understand the frameworks. You need to understand the tools. You need to understand the databases. You need to understand how all these things fit together. And AI will make it 10x faster to implement what you understand."

That's the difference.

It's the difference between:

• Vibe coder: "I'll prompt Cursor to build me a todo list app"
• Real coder using AI: "I'll use React for the frontend, Tailwind for styling, Supabase for the backend, and Cursor to accelerate the implementation"

The first person has no idea what they built. The second person understands every layer and how they connect.

2.1 Tier 1: The Foundations (Microcontrollers + Fundamentals)

In Tier 1, you learn the absolute basics. Not to write code slowly. Not to memorize syntax. But to understand the concepts that everything else is built on.

What you learn:

• What is a function? (Not how to write one. What it fundamentally is.)
• What is a variable? (Not how to declare one. Why they exist.)
• What is a library? (How does code reuse work?)
• What is a microcontroller? (Hardware fundamentals), as you progress you expand your knowledge
• How do hardware, software, and data connect?

How you learn it: You build actual microcontroller projects. But here's the thing: you don't write the code line-by-line. You understand what you're building, and you use AI to accelerate the actual coding part.

You learn the basics of embedded systems through doing, with AI removing the friction of syntax and repetitive typing. You're 10x faster because you're not memorizing how to format Arduino code. You're learning by building and understanding.

By the end of Tier 1, you're not a "vibe coder." You understand the fundamentals. You know the right questions to ask. You understand when the AI is giving you good code and when it's giving you garbage.

2.2 Tier 2: The Frameworks (Full-Stack Web Development)

In Tier 2, you go deeper. You learn how modern web development actually works.

What you learn:

• React (how it works, why it exists, when to use it, when NOT to use it)
• Supabase (how databases work, how authentication works, how to structure data)
• Netlify (how deployment works, environment variables, real-world hosting)
• Tailwind CSS (how styling works, design systems, why this matters)
• GitHub (version control, collaboration, history, branching strategies)
• Security (how to NOT ship vulnerable code, environment variables, API key management)
• Architecture (how all these pieces fit together)

How you learn it: You don't just watch videos about React. You build real projects. Full-stack projects. But you build them with understanding.

You understand that your React component needs to fetch data from Supabase. You understand why that's an async operation. You understand what a context window is and how to structure your prompt so the AI remembers the whole project. You understand why security matters, and you understand how to implement it properly.

And yes—the actual typing of code? That's handled by Cursor. Because you understand the architecture, the framework, and what you're building, you can tell Cursor what to do. Cursor handles the syntax and implementation details.

You're not waiting weeks to finish a project because you're slow at typing. You're shipping in days because you understand the structure and Cursor handles the mechanics.

But here's the key: You can debug it. You understand it. You can modify it. You can optimize it. You can teach someone else how it works.

That's not vibe coding. That's using AI as a tool, not as a crutch.

2.3 What You're NOT Doing (Anymore)

By Tier 2, you're not:

• Typing out React boilerplate manually
• Debugging syntax errors for hours
• Memorizing function signatures
• Copy-pasting StackOverflow answers without understanding them
• Deploying broken code because you don't understand the architecture
• Getting stuck when requirements change because you can't think through the implications

You're accelerating the mechanical parts. But the thinking parts? That's all you.

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3. The Prompting Mindset: A Skill Itself

Here's something most people don't realize about AI coding: prompting is a skill.

It's not obvious. It's not something you can just pick up. And it's not something the AI teaches you—it's something you learn through practice and understanding.

What does good prompting look like?

Bad prompt:

"Build me a website"

Good prompt:

"Create a React component that displays a user profile with name, email, and avatar. The component should fetch data from a Supabase table called 'users' using the user's ID from the URL parameter. Style it with Tailwind CSS. Include error handling if the fetch fails."

The difference? Understanding.

In the good prompt, the person knows:

• What a React component is
• What Tailwind CSS does
• What Supabase is
• How URL parameters work
• What error handling means

They're not hoping. They're directing. They're telling Cursor exactly what to build because they understand the architecture.

This is the skill Rebel Glitch teaches you.

Not just "here are some cool prompts." But "here's how to think about your project architecture, and here's how to translate that into directions for an AI."

That's a learnable skill. That's a valuable skill. And honestly, that's the skill that separates AI-assisted developers from vibe coders.

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4. Why Security Isn't Optional (And Why AI Makes It Easy)

The skeptics are right about one thing: security is hard.

Hard, that is, when you're coding everything manually and trying to remember all the edge cases and vulnerabilities.

But here's where AI actually helps: security is now much easier to implement if you understand it.

You know what's dangerous? Not knowing what you don't know.

A vibe coder builds a login system and doesn't even realize they're storing passwords in plain text. They don't know about bcrypt. They don't know about JWT tokens. They don't know about CORS. They don't know about environment variables.

A real developer using AI:

• Understands what password hashing is
• Understands what JWTs are and why they're better than sessions
• Tells Cursor: "Create a login endpoint that hashes passwords using bcrypt and returns a JWT token"
• Cursor implements it correctly
• They review it because they understand what they're asking for

The AI didn't write insecure code. The developer asked for secure code because they understand what security means.

This is what Rebel Glitch teaches. Not just "use AI." But "understand security, and use AI to implement it faster."

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5. From Vibe Coder to Full-Stack Developer

Here's what a real developer looks like in 2025:

They understand React (and could write it manually if they had to, even if it's slow).
They understand databases (and could write SQL queries by hand).
They understand authentication and security.
They understand Git and version control.
They understand deployment and DevOps concepts.
They understand how to structure a project architecturally.
They understand how all these pieces fit together.

And because of AI? They build in weeks instead of months. But they're not cutting corners. They're just not wasting time on the mechanical parts.

That's not a vibe coder. That's a full-stack developer with a superpower.

That's what you become after Tier 1 and Tier 2.

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6. The Tiers 3 & 4 Reality: AI Doesn't Replace Deep Learning

By the way, for Tier 3 and Tier 4 (advanced edge AI, model training, datasets, inference, facial recognition), you can't vibe code your way through. You actually need deep understanding.

You can't prompt your way to training a custom ML model. You need to understand:

• Datasets and data quality
• Model architecture
• Loss functions
• Training loops
• Overfitting and underfitting
• Inference optimization

This is where AI can't really help you code faster. This is where you need expertise.

That's by design. Tier 1 and 2 are where you learn to "vibe code" properly—with understanding. Tier 3 and 4 are where you learn advanced concepts that are harder to abstract away.

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7. What Actually Distinguishes You

Here's the bottom line.

In 2025, being a "coder" doesn't mean you can type fast. It means you understand systems.

Vibe coders can generate code. There are thousands of them. Their code breaks. Their projects fail. Their customers are frustrated. Their employers are skeptical.

Real developers using AI understand frameworks, security, architecture, and systems. They can generate code that works, because they know what they're asking for. They can debug it. They can modify it. They can optimize it. They can teach someone else.

That's the difference.

And honestly? The skeptics have a point. There's a lot of bad code being written by people who think AI is a magic wand.

But that's not a problem with AI. That's a problem with people not taking the time to actually understand what they're building.

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8. The Rebel Glitch Difference

This is why Rebel Glitch AI is different from other "AI coding" platforms.

We're not selling you a shortcut. We're not promising you can be a developer in 30 days by learning prompts.

We're teaching you to be a real developer who happens to use AI.

That takes more time. It requires more discipline. It means you have to actually understand frameworks, databases, security, and architecture.

But by the end? You're not a vibe coder. You're a full-stack developer.

And honestly, I think that's what we owe our students. Not the ability to type a prompt. But the ability to understand, build, deploy, and maintain real software.

That's the Rebel Glitch way.

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9. The Uncomfortable Truth

Here's the uncomfortable truth that both sides need to hear:

To the skeptics: You're right that most AI coding right now is producing sloppy, unsecure code. You're right that vibe coders are a problem. You're right that understanding matters. But you're wrong that AI is the problem. The problem is people using tools without understanding.

To the AI enthusiasts: It's not enough to just ship fast. You need to understand what you're shipping. Security matters. Architecture matters. Maintainability matters. Your code needs to work for your customers, not just look impressive on your screen.

To aspiring developers: You have an amazing opportunity. You can learn frameworks and architecture and systems thinking 10x faster because you don't have to waste time on syntax and mechanical coding. But only if you actually put in the effort to understand.

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10. Your Next Steps

If you're currently a "vibe coder" (even if you haven't admitted it to yourself), here's what you need to do:

1. Stop asking for features. Start asking for understanding.
2. Learn the fundamentals. Understand what a function is. Understand what a database is. Understand how the web works.
3. Build one real project. Not following a tutorial. Not copying prompts. But building something where you understand every layer.
4. Understand your tools. Pick React. Pick Supabase. Pick Netlify. Learn them deeply.
5. Then use AI. Once you understand what you're building, use AI to build it faster.

That's the path from vibe coder to real developer.

And that's what Rebel Glitch teaches.

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FAQ: But What If...

Q: Isn't this slower than just using AI to code everything?

A: In the short term, yes. You'll spend more time learning. But in the long term, no. Because your code actually works. You can modify it. You can debug it. You're not spending months refactoring bad code.

Q: What if I just want to build a quick side project?

A: Then sure, vibe code it. But know that it's temporary. It'll break. It'll be unmaintainable. And your customer will be unhappy.

Q: Doesn't understanding frameworks take forever?

A: Not with AI. You can learn React in weeks instead of months, because you're not typing boilerplate. You're learning concepts and letting AI handle the mechanics.

Q: But I don't have time to learn all this.

A: Then you don't have time to be a real developer. This isn't gatekeeping. This is just the reality of the profession. You need to understand your tools.

Q: Won't AI eventually be so good that understanding doesn't matter?

A: Maybe. But we're not there yet. And even if we get there, understanding will always be valuable. You'll understand your customers' needs better. You'll make better architectural decisions. You'll spot security vulnerabilities. You'll be indispensable.

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The Bottom Line

AI coding is here to stay. It's not going away.

The question is: will you be a vibe coder who hopes things work? Or a real developer who knows things work?

The skeptics are watching. Your customers are watching. Your employers are watching.

Show them you understand.

That's what matters.

That's what Rebel Glitch teaches.

That's how you stop being a vibe coder and become a real full-stack developer.