Why Did a $10 Billion Startup Let Me Vibe-Code for Them—and Why Did I Love It?

In this piece, Laurne Goode spends two days at a San Francisco startup, Notion, to explore “vibe-coding,” a form of AI-assisted programming that is sweeping across tech companies. Simon Last, one of Notion’s three cofounders, equates running the AI coding apps to managing a bunch of interns—but they are learning fast. Should we be scared? Will this replace 100 people in the company, or rather make each person 100 times more productive?

I was crushing it. I was a responsible babysitter for code, watching it cascade in front of my eyes and then toddle its way into the world. Except, my logic was wrong. My to-do list hack was somehow allowing for endless duplicates instead of avoiding them. Who was to blame: me or the AI?

A product designer named Brian talked me through it. “Pretend you’re talking to a smart intern,” he said. Again with the interns.

I reversed my logic and tried again, typing in more detail around how I envisioned the widget working. “That’s a great idea,” Claude responded, ever the sycophant, and then got to work. Forty minutes later, the three of us had prototyped a version of my dinky little—no, I mean killer—feature. We had spent $7 to build it, according to the token counter in Claude Code. I was told other engineering projects cost much more than that, especially if coders let the AI run for hours. It was still light out when I wrapped up the first day.