The rise of the professional vibe coder (a new AI-era job) | Lazar Jovanovic (Professional Vibe Coder)
<p><strong>Lazar Jovanovic</strong> is a full-time professional vibe coder at Lovable. His job is to build both internal tools and customer-facing products purely using AI, while not having a coding background. In this conversation, he breaks down the tactics, workflows, and framework that let him ship production-quality products using only AI.</p><p></p><p><strong>We discuss:</strong></p><p>1. Why having no coding background can be an advantage when building with AI</p><p>2. Why most of your time should go to planning and chat mode, not prompting</p><p>3. What to do when you get stuck: his 4x4 debugging workflow</p><p>4. The PRD and Markdown file system that keeps AI agents aligned across complex builds</p><p>5. Why kicking off four or five parallel prototypes is the best way to clarify your thinking</p><p>6. Why design skills and taste are going to be the most important skills in the future</p><p>7. His “genie and three wishes” mental model for making the most of AI’s limitations</p><p>8. How product, engineering, and design roles are converging—and what that means for your career</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Brought to you by:</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://strella.io/lenny"><strong>Strella</strong></a>—The AI-powered customer research platform: <a target="_blank" href="https://strella.io/lenny">https://strella.io/lenny</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://samsara.com/lenny"><strong>Samsara</strong></a>—Saving lives with AI built for physical operations: <a target="_blank" href="https://samsara.com/lenny">https://samsara.com/lenny</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/lenny"><strong>WorkOS</strong></a>—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: <a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/lenny">https://workos.com/lenny</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Episode transcript:</strong> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/getting-paid-to-vibe-code">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/getting-paid-to-vibe-code</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Lazar Jovanovic:</strong></p><p>• X: <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/lakikentaki">https://x.com/lakikentaki</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lazar-jovanovic">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lazar-jovanovic</a></p><p>• YouTube: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/@50in50challenge">https://www.youtube.com/@50in50challenge</a></p><p>• Starter Story course: <a target="_blank" href="https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?via=lazar">https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?via=lazar</a> (code LAZAR15 for 15% off)</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Lenny:</strong></p><p>• Newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com</a></p><p>• X: <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/lennysan">https://twitter.com/lennysan</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>(00:00) Introduction to Lazar and professional vibe coding</p><p>(04:53) What a professional vibe coder actually does day-to-day</p><p>(09:26) Why non-technical backgrounds can be an advantage</p><p>(12:24) The importance of self-awareness</p><p>(14:42) His “genie and three wishes” mental model</p><p>(17:43) Developing taste and judgment in the age of AI</p><p>(21:46) The parallel project approach for better outcomes</p><p>(29:30) Creating dynamic context windows with PRDs</p><p>(36:56) Why elite vibe coders focus on planning, not coding</p><p>(44:43) Creating MD files to guide AI development</p><p>(50:57) Why prototyping still matters</p><p>(56:50) Why “good enough” is no longer good enough</p><p>(01:00:53) The future of engineering in an AI world</p><p>(01:05:14) What to do when you get stuck: his 4x4 debugging workflow</p><p>(01:14:27) Helping agents learn from their mistakes</p><p>(01:15:35) Why watching agent output is more important than code</p><p>(01:19:08) The incredible pace of AI development</p><p>(01:22:55) Why emotional intelligence will become more valuable</p><p>(01:28:30) How to become a professional vibe coder</p><p>(01:30:10) Why building in public is the fastest path to opportunities</p><p>(01:37:03) Final thoughts on focusing on quality over tech stack</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Referenced:</strong></p><p>• The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-new-ai-growth-playbook-for-2026-elena-verna">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-new-ai-growth-playbook-for-2026-elena-verna</a></p><p>• Elena Verna on how B2B growth is changing, product-led growth, product-led sales, why you should go freemium not trial, what features to make free, and much more: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/elena-verna-on-why-every-company">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/elena-verna-on-why-every-company</a></p><p>• The ultimate guide to product-led sales | Elena Verna: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-led</a></p><p>• 10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-growth-tactics-that-never-work-elena-verna">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-growth-tactics-that-never-work-elena-verna</a></p><p>• Lovable: <a target="_blank" href="https://lovable.dev">https://lovable.dev</a></p><p>• Lovable + Shopify: <a target="_blank" href="https://lovable.dev/shopify">https://lovable.dev/shopify</a></p><p>• Everyone’s an engineer now: Inside v0’s mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder and CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch</a></p><p>• Mobbin: <a target="_blank" href="https://mobbin.com">https://mobbin.com</a></p><p>• Dribbble: <a target="_blank" href="https://dribbble.com">https://dribbble.com</a></p><p>• <a target="_blank" href="http://21st.dev">21st.dev</a>: <a target="_blank" href="https://21st.dev">https://21st.dev</a></p><p>• Lovable base prompt generator: <a target="_blank" href="https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67e1da2c9c988191b52b61084438e8ee-lovable-base-prompt">https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67e1da2c9c988191b52b61084438e8ee-lovable-base-prompt</a></p><p>• Lovable PRD generator: <a target="_blank" href="https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67e1e85fbeac8191a69b95c6d5c42ef6-lovable-prd-generator">https://chatgpt.com/g/g-67e1e85fbeac8191a69b95c6d5c42ef6-lovable-prd-generator</a></p><p>• Felix Haas’s newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://designplusai.com">https://designplusai.com</a></p><p>• Bauhaus: <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus</a></p><p>• Glassmorphism: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1197106608665398190/glassmorphism">https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1197106608665398190/glassmorphism</a></p><p>• UI style guide: <a target="_blank" href="http://uistyle.lovable.app">http://uistyle.lovable.app</a></p><p>• Cloudflare: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cloudflare.com">https://www.cloudflare.com</a></p><p>• Ben Tossell on X: <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/bentossell">https://x.com/bentossell</a></p><p>• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell</a></p><p>• Peter Thiel says AI will be ‘worse’ for math nerds than for writers: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-ai-worse-for-math-professionals-than-writers-2024-4">https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-ai-worse-for-math-professionals-than-writers-2024-4</a></p><p>• Andrej Karpathy on X: <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/karpathy">https://x.com/karpathy</a></p><p>• The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google’s secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/surge-ai-edwin-chen">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/surge-ai-edwin-chen</a></p><p>• Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history | Brendan Foody (CEO of Mercor): <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/experts-writing-ai-evals-brendan-foody">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/experts-writing-ai-evals-brendan-foody</a></p><p>• <em>Slumdog Millionaire</em>: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048</a></p><p>—</p><p>Production and marketing by <a target="_blank" href="https://penname.co/">https://penname.co/</a>. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email <a target="_blank" href="mailto:
[email protected]">
[email protected]</a>.</p><p>—</p><p><em>Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.</em></p> <br/><br/>To hear more, visit <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language">www.lennysnewsletter.com</a>
