Vibe Coding vs Spec Coding: Same Refund Feature, Built Twice (opens in new tab)

Vibe coding is intoxicating. You describe what you want in plain language, the AI writes the code, and ten minutes later you have a working endpoint. I was sold — until I shipped a refund feature that way and spent the next two weeks patching bugs that a 90-minute spec would have prevented entirely. This is the side-by-side, using the exact same requirement, so you can see where the gap opens up. The requirement An e-commerce platform needs an order refund feature. The PM's brief: Support ful...