Chapter 1: DON’T PANIC

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

The same could be said of AI-assisted coding.

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The First Rule of Vibe Coding

The large, friendly letters on the cover of this Guide say DON’T PANIC for a very good reason.

When you first start vibe coding, you will experience:

1. The Wow Phase - “This is incredible! It wrote my entire function!”
2. The Horror Phase - “Wait, this code makes no sense and broke everything”
3. The Acceptance Phase - “Ah, I see. It’s a tool, not a replacement for thinking”

Most developers get stuck oscillating between phases 1 and 2 indefinitely. The purpose of this Guide is to help you reach phase 3 and stay there.

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Why Panic Is Counterproductive

When the AI generates something unexpected, your first instinct might be to:

• Delete everything and start over
• Blame the AI
• Question your career choices
• All of the above

None of these are helpful.

Instead, remember: the AI is a very sophisticated autocomplete. It predicts what tokens should come next based on patterns. It doesn’t “understand” your codebase, your requirements, or the existential weight of your sprint deadline.

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The Towel Moment

Every vibe coder will have a “towel moment”—a situation where everything seems lost, the code is broken, and you’re not sure if the AI is helping or making things worse.

In these moments, remember:

“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have… Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

Your towel in vibe coding is version control.

git status
git diff
git stash
git checkout .

These four commands will save you more times than you can count.

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Practical Don’t-Panic Techniques

1. Start Small

Don’t ask for an entire application. Ask for one function. Then another. Build incrementally.

2. Read Before You Run

The AI will generate code confidently. That confidence means nothing. Read every line before executing.

3. Test Immediately

Write a test. Run it. If it fails, you’ve learned something. If it passes, you’ve verified something.

4. Keep Context Small

The more context you give, the more the AI has to hallucinate about. Be specific. Be concise.

5. Know When to Stop

Sometimes the AI can’t help. That’s okay. You have a brain. Use it.

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The Answer

When in doubt, the answer is probably 42.

Or more practically: slow down, think, verify, iterate.

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Next: The Towel Principle