Kids, It's Time to Build the Thing
4 minute read / by Sam Daugherty / June 20th, 2025
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I know. I know! All these posts about vibe coding are getting old and annoying. But I felt compelled to write one, because it's something that all Designers should attempt. Not just attempt either, but, like, really dive in. Try to take that idea you've had brewing for years and try to build it. Because I did that, and it was shockingly easy.
Photo by NEXT Academy on Unsplash
There are plenty of good articles on Vibe Coding, so I don't necessarily need to add to the noise. This is more my story about bringing an idea to life, and how it motivated me to keep going and try new things. I even learned some foundational skills along the way, like getting a much better grasp on Tailwind. So, hopefully, it inspires you to bring your idea to life!
My Failed Idea
Background info: I used to teach Econ in another life and—shocker—I'm someone who considers himself a big advocate for workers and fair pay. So, something I've always been adamantly aware of is how inflation eats our wages year after year. And it happens slowly enough that we don't realize it. That annual 3% pay increase? It seems normal, but it's half the reason you're no better off despite years of hard work.
For years, I worked on an idea of building my own calculator that laid it all out in plain language. But I could never figure out how to build it.
One way to know is to enter your starting wage and start date into the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator and see what it says. And it'll spit out a number, but you need context for it to make sense. For years, I worked on an idea to create my own calculator that spelled it out in plain language. But I could never figure out how to build it. I could code the UI just fine and get it working right, but making API calls and JavaScript failed every time. For years, I attempted this! And never once succeeded.
The Fateful Evening
Then came a cold winter day, when I was traveling for work, and found myself in a hotel with several hours to kill. My software engineering friends had been talking about Cursor for days, and how much it's helped them. It was too cold to go outside (if you've ever experienced a Chicago winter, you know what I'm talking about). So I downloaded Cursor, uploaded a screenshot of my design, typed up what I was trying to do, and… meh.
But that's learning, right? Turns out it couldn't really "see" my screenshot in the same way that you or I can see an image. It was trying to read metadata, and it did okay. But that's when I started my long journey of learning how to write better prompts. And, by long journey, I mean about an hour of trial and error.
What I thought would be another failed attempt turned into a fully functioning, online calculator that was live for the world to use in just under 90 minutes. Granted, this is a single page and fairly simple, but something I spent years trying to do myself was finished faster than watching a movie on Netflix. It blew my mind!
But, more importantly, it inspired me to dust off some of my other ideas.
What I'm working on now
So far, I've tried building a native iOS app. It's an interval timer for working out (still working on that one), and it's stupid how complicated it is. Not the development of it, but all the rules around a timer, and what Apple will and won't let you do. I'll write a post about that process soon, depending on whether I succeed or fail. I'll write the post either way, but the outcome will dictate what I write.
It also helped me realize I could ditch expensive no-code subscriptions like Framer and just vibe code my portfolio from scratch. Yes, this very website you're reading right now. I was paying $120/yr to host my portfolio on Framer, and I rebuilt the whole thing in the evenings over a couple of weeks, and I'm hosting it on Vercel for free. It even built a whole ass blog for me that would have cost extra to create in Framer. I didn't even have to pay the $20/mo for Cursor (although I did).
It also helped me realize I could ditch expensive no-code subscriptions like Framer, and just vibe code it for free.
Yes, using AI saved me money. Even though it costs money.
Next, I've been considering getting my old consulting website back online, building a different blog not related to my job, and even planning and designing a social media app that will probably go nowhere because I'm one person and don't know how to moderate content. And we all know how much the worst people in society will ruin something if you can't stop them from uploading shit to it.
So What About You?
That was ultimately the point of this post: What ideas do you have, and how can you bring them to life? As designers, it's incredibly hard to build something if you're not an engineer, and learning code feels like having a second job. Because, well, it kind of is?
If you haven't tried it yet, I can't stress enough how this is a turning point in the way we work. I truly believe it is. Whether it's a good one or not, I don't know. But that shouldn't stop you from bringing your ideas to life. That thing you've always wanted to build? Go build it! That portfolio you designed but had to settle for a Squarespace template? Go fucking build it! Because nothing is stopping you now. If you can type, you can create it.
What a wild time to be alive.