Plan Mode: Spend 80% on Specs

In this episode, Aydin sits down with Paul Xue, a self-described “vibe marketer” and former 3x CTO who now runs an AI-native Reddit growth agency. Paul explains why he believes any assumption you made about AI even three months ago is probably wrong today, and how that realization pushed him to pivot away from writing code as a long-term career.He walks through how his team ships production software where ~100% of the code is AI-generated, why 80% of the work now lives in planning and system design, and how new models like Claude Opus 4.5 and Gemini 3 let him literally “go for a walk” while his tools implement features. Along the way, Paul shares real numbers (two years of work vs 10–15 hours), what this means for agencies and devs, how he hires in an AI-native world, and gives a behind-the-scenes tour of the multi-agent workflows powering his Reddit content engine.Timestamps0:00 – Introduction1:01 – What a “vibe marketer” is and why Reddit is a power channel in the LLM era3:01 – From 3x CTO to Reddit-first entrepreneur: deciding coding isn’t future-proof4:06 – GPT-3.5 + end of zero interest rates: when dev agency contracts fell off a cliff6:28 – Adoption curves: senior devs who still don’t use AI and why personality matters7:57 – Running an AI-native shop where ~100% of production code is AI-generated9:48 – Two years vs 10–15 hours: Paul’s personal 10x story on shipping an MVP12:04 – New development workflow: “plan mode” and spending 80% of time on specs18:17 – Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3, and “going for a walk” while AI finishes features23:30 – How $60K–$250K apps turn into weekend side projects with vibe coding tools27:12 – Hiring in the AI era: why pure “ticket-taking” devs won’t survive35:12 – Inside an AI-native Reddit engine: n8n workflows, agents, Pinecone & OpenRouterTools & Technologies MentionedReddit – Primary growth and content channel; a highly trusted source for LLM training and citations.ChatGPT / GPT-3.5 – Early model that triggered Paul’s realization that traditional coding careers would change.Claude 3.5 Sonnet & Claude 3.5 Opus / Opus 4.5 – Anthropic models Paul uses for long-running coding, planning, and browser automation.Gemini 3 – Google model Paul uses to quickly generate solid, familiar SaaS-style UI/UX ideas.Cursor – AI-native code editor that turns detailed “plans” into production code with one click.n8n – Automation platform that powers Paul’s multi-step AI workflows for content creation and evaluation.Pinecone – Vector database storing each client’s knowledge base for highly relevant Reddit responses.OpenRouter – Routing layer that lets Paul easily swap and test different language models over time.MCP (Model Context Protocol) – Framework he uses to give agents tool access (e.g., scraping Reddit, reading DBs).Notion – Fast prototyping environment to validate data models and workflows before writing custom code.Zapier – General automation glue in the earliest workflow experiments.Figma – Design tool, now increasingly AI-assisted, for UI/UX mockups.SpecCode – Tool Paul cites for vibe coding HIPAA-compliant applications.Anything – Mobile-focused “vibe coding” platform for building iOS/Android apps on your phone.Fellow – AI meeting assistant that joins meetings, produces summaries/action items, and acts as an AI chief of staff.Subscribe at⁠ thisnewway.com⁠ to get the step-by-step playbooks, tools, and workflows.