Blog Post Compares AI Coding to Visual Basic Era: Democratized Mediocrity?

This comparison hits harder than it should. VB gave every business analyst the power to build applications. What it did not give them was the judgment to know when they should not. We are watching the same pattern replay at 100x speed. The difference is that VB apps lived on departmental servers. Vibe-coded apps live on the public internet, handle user data, and connect to payment APIs. The stakes are categorically different. But dismissing vibe coding entirely is the wrong move. The right frame is: vibe coding is a legitimate prototyping and learning tool that becomes dangerous the moment it crosses the line into production without review. The product engineer role exists precisely at this boundary — the person who can vibe-code a prototype in an hour and also knows why it needs a security audit before it ships. AI gives people capability before it gives them calibration. That gap is where the real risk lives.