When AI Writes Your Code: Success, Horror Stories, and What's Next with Susan Boles

Remember when coding meant years of computer science classes and debugging late into the night? Well, things have changed. I recently sat down with Susan Bowles, founder and fellow solopreneur, to dive into the world of "vibe coding" — essentially describing what you want to AI and having it write all the code for you.

While I had a nearly flawless experience with ChatGPT writing 2,000 lines of WordPress code for an underscoped client project, Susan's journey with Google Scripts was more of a write-test-fail-repeat cycle. We explored how this technology is reshaping not just how we build things, but potentially eliminating entry-level programming positions while creating new challenges around security and best practices.

The conversation took an interesting turn when I shared my recent Claude horror story — what started as a simple quiz creation turned into building an entire WordPress plugin, only to realize I should have just used Gravity Forms from the beginning. Sometimes the smartest tool isn't the shiniest one.

Special thanks to Kit for letting us use their studios! Learn more about them here

Want my AI Swipe file? Go here: https://streamlined.fm/automation

Top Takeaways

• Vibe coding works best when you already understand the fundamentals — AI is great at writing code, but terrible at making decisions about what that code should actually do
• Security remains a major blind spot — AI will happily tell you to put API keys in plain text unless you know enough to question it
• The technology excels at helping you execute cool ideas quickly and get to beta testing faster, but shouldn't be the foundation of a fundable business

Show Notes

• Part 2 of this conversation on "Calm is the New KPI"
• My previous episode: "I Vibe Coded a Client Project"
• Cortex podcast
• Austin Church
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Lovable
• Zapier
• Make.com
• ConvertKit (now Kit)
• streamlinedfeedback.com

Disclaimer: Claude pretty much wrote this whole description based on the transcript.