If you do one thing this year, learn to vibecode
The future of work is uncertain. You’ve heard about massive layoffs - 800k+ layoffs in the first seven months of 2025 in the US alone. Progressive companies like Zapier announced that they are “AI-first” and require that 100% of new hires have proficiency with AI in their role. In an environment where big companies openly use AI to justify cutting “replaceable” roles, the way to become in-expendable is to be the person who can wield AI, automation, and vibecoding to create value, not just knowledge to perform a narrow, automatable task.
What is vibecoding?
“Vibecoding” is the process of building software using plain english as your programming language. You can pick up a tool like Bolt.new or Lovable.dev and in a matter of minutes build a functional prototype application that works without knowing how to program. This method of building software promises to give superpowers to the layperson with the ability to create software without having to spend years learning how to write code.
It’s attractive - even seductive - the idea that you can generate an app in a matter of minutes. People have built internal tools that saved their teams countless hours and even launched side businesses that earn 5-figure MRR without knowing how to code. The problem is this utopian vision of vibecoding your way to riches and financial freedom tends to break down as soon as your application gains paying customers and it needs to be supported and extended with new features. Vibecoding is fantastic for prototyping but in its “shoot from the hip without a process” variant is inadequate for running production software. We need an approach that’s more deliberate and bulletproof to build production software. Fortunately one exists and I’m now teaching it.
Why this is important
A few examples of AI cannibalizing jobs in the corporate environment:
• IBM: Around 8,000 employees laid off in 2025, largely from HR, with the company stating those roles were being replaced by an internal AI chatbot (“AskHR”) while they rehire into software and data roles.
• Intel: Announced over 21,000 job cuts (nearly 20% of its workforce), tied to a shift in focus toward AI chip manufacturing and away from other units.
• Microsoft: More than 15,000 cuts in 2025, including 9,000 roles in gaming and cloud, framed as simplification and reinvestment in AI; management has explicitly linked productivity gains to tools like GitHub Copilot reducing the need for certain support layers.
• Meta & Google: Both have trimmed staff in specific divisions (e.g., Reality Labs at Meta; platforms/devices at Google) while simultaneously announcing increased investment in AI research and AI-powered product features.
Guess who the people are who are not getting let go?
The ones who learn to embrace these technologies and use them to amplify their effectiveness & productivity.
Learning how to vibecode an application is a double-whammy in that it:
Makes you less expendable and more desirable as an employee at a day job.
Gives you a superpower to start a revenue-generating side hustle that can provide a supplementary income stream and give you greater negotiating leverage.
So why doesn’t everyone learn this?
Tools like Lovable.dev and Bolt.new are super accessible and easily picked up by non-technical folks. The problem is they fall short when it comes to building production-grade software applications. Tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Anti-gravity, Codex and Copilot are the second tier, more-sophisticated implements one needs to accomplish this however there’s still a non-trivial technical barrier to overcome in using them. One needs to configure SSH keys, gain some basic proficiency with using the Linux command line, learn some basics of Git and Github, MCP’s, etc.
There has been no straightforward path (until now) that hand-holds the average non-engineer across this technical chasm by delivering just the minimum effective dosage of instruction with concepts one needs to know to gain proficiency with these tools. This gap is just wide enough to preclude 99% of people from using these incredibly-powerful tools.
Enter Vibecode Lisboa
I started this group three years ago in Lisbon in an attempt to close this gap.
It pre-dated the recent GenAI tools that have sprung up in the past year and was originally called “Nocode Lisboa” and centered around using tools like Bubble.io, Webflow and Adalo for building software as a non-technical person. With the advent of these recent powerful AI-based tools I pivoted the group to center on using them to take the place of Nocode. This is the way at this point. Once you grasp the basics of working with an LLM to build an application the Nocode approach seems incredibly arcane and restrictive (vendor lock-in, high fees, constrained in how fast you can iterate, none of the extensibility that MCP affords you).
As of today Vibecode Lisboa is a group with a physical presence in Lisbon, Portugal but one that welcomes participation in our online community regardless of where you are from. As a semi-retired individual it’s now my main focus and charge to help laypeople gain proficiency with these tools and get liberated from the rat race so they can comfortably create whatever it is they’re born to create on their own terms.
What will you build?
As we close out 2025 I invite you to take this thought exercise: imagine forward one, two, three years with your current work trajectory given your current skill set and changing nothing. What do your days look like? What types of work are you doing and how stable is your footing?
Now imagine your path with the capability to create fully-functional web and mobile apps in an afternoon. What can you build with the specific domain knowledge and judgement you’ve amassed over a career and a life of all the exposure to ideas and opportunities that are uniquely yours? What would it be like to emerge as the leader in your organization who figures out how to leverage these tools productively and levels up your team? How does that confidence feel once you’ve mastered the basics enough to create a side hustle which can provide for you and your family even if your corporate job gets cut? How much negotiating leverage does that give you next time you’re up for promotion in your day job? And what will you do with the hours you win back in your daily life having been able to automate and delegate drudgery via these tools?
2026 is the year to become proficient with GenAI tools and I will teach you how. My name is Sean Tierney and I am teaching people like you how to employ this stuff productively. Take my online self-serve course or apply for our next cohort and take the first definitive step to gaining proficiency with the tools that represent the greatest leverage potential of our lifetimes. I look forward to meeting you.
Indeed it's pretty awesome what you can do with these tools these days, and especially without any prior coding knowledge, which opens up software development to 99.99% of the population. That is HUGE. I'm expecting ProductHunt to be flooded with products in the not too far future. And I think Sean is the right person to guide you, I definitely recommend his workshops and guidance.
Sean and I have been friends for decades. We founded the Phoenix ColdFusion Users Group way back when. He has rolled with the changes for decades. I pivoted and returned to my original “dream” career of being a professional pilot. Through the years we have kept in touch and talked tech. I recently built an app with Claude to help pilots at the company I work for. It has been an interesting journey. I plan on going through his course when I have time. Always good to have a backup plan and or a side hustle. Keep up the good work!