Saturday, February 21, 2026

Engineering matter in AI

 

As much as I love getting my hands dirty with the latest AI frameworks, I’m also a big believer in intentional design. Here’s the mindset I bring to the table beyond just the code.

We’ve all seen it. You type a prompt, the AI spits out 200 lines of code, and—magically—it runs. It feels like a superpower. This is "Vibe Coding." It’s fast, it’s intoxicating, and it’s a brilliant way to prototype an idea in a weekend.

But as the above image from social media illustrates, there is a massive difference between a structure that looks like a house and one that can actually weather a storm.


The Allure (and Danger) of the Vibe

In the left panel, we see the "AI Vibe" house. On the surface, it has a roof and walls. But look closer:

  • The Foundation: It’s sitting on a pile of loose rocks. In software, this is the lack of a scalable architecture or a proper database schema.

  • The Logic: There’s a toilet in the middle of the kitchen. This is what happens when AI generates features without understanding the user flow or business logic.

  • The Infrastructure: Plumbing is hanging out in the open, tangled and messy. This is your "spaghetti code"—untested, undocumented, and impossible to maintain.

Vibe coding is great for exploring, but it's dangerous for building. That's why Engineering matters in the age of AI!


The Engineer-Guided Evolution

The right panel shows the future of our industry: Engineer-Guided AI. Being an engineer in 2026 isn't about writing every semicolon; it’s about being the Architect of the Intelligence. When you guide the AI with an engineering mindset, you provide:

  1. Structural Integrity: You define the patterns (MVC, Microservices, Clean Architecture) before the first line is generated.

  2. Safety & Security: You don't just ask for a "login page"; you enforce OAuth standards, input validation, and encryption.

  3. The Basement (Scalability): You ensure the foundation—the infrastructure and DevOps pipeline—is poured deep enough to support future growth.


The Bottom Line

AI is the most powerful power tool ever invented, but a power tool in the hands of someone without a blueprint just creates a faster mess.

Don't just code for the vibe. Build for the future. The world doesn't need more "houses" that collapse under pressure; it needs engineers who use AI to build cathedrals.

In AI world, follow your engineering passion to add business/human values

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