Chapter 42 Exercises: The Vibe Coding Mindset

These exercises are organized into five tiers based on Bloom's taxonomy. As this is the final chapter — and a reflective, integrative one — the exercises are heavily weighted toward Tiers 4 and 5, emphasizing analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and creation. Many of these exercises ask you to draw on your experiences across all 42 chapters.

Tier 1: Recall and Comprehension

Ensure you have internalized the key concepts from Chapter 42.

Exercise 42.1: The Ten Enduring Principles

List all ten enduring principles from Section 42.9 from memory. For each one, write one sentence explaining why it outlasts any specific AI tool.

Exercise 42.2: Ethical Dimensions

Identify the five ethical dimensions of AI-assisted development discussed in Section 42.2 (responsibility, bias, environmental impact, equitable access, intellectual honesty). For each dimension, write a one-sentence definition and a one-sentence example of how a vibe coder might encounter it in practice.

Exercise 42.3: Skill Durability Framework

Reproduce the three-tier skill durability framework from Section 42.3 (high, medium, lower durability). List at least three skills in each tier and explain the reasoning behind the categorization.

Exercise 42.4: The Human Element

Name the four irreplaceable human capacities discussed in Section 42.8. For each one, describe a situation where AI cannot substitute for the human capacity and explain why.

Exercise 42.5: Toolkit Components

List the six core toolkit components from Section 42.5. For each, identify one specific tool or product that could fill that role and explain your choice.

Tier 2: Application

Apply the concepts from Chapter 42 to practical scenarios.

Exercise 42.6: Ethical Scenario Analysis

Consider the following scenario: You have vibe coded a job application screening tool for a small business. The AI-generated code uses natural language processing to score resumes and rank candidates. Before deploying it, what ethical concerns should you investigate? Write a checklist of at least eight specific questions you would need to answer.

Exercise 42.7: Weekly Learning Plan

Using the weekly learning rhythm framework from Section 42.4, create a detailed plan for one week of learning. Include: - Specific newsletters or feeds you will scan on Monday - A specific article, paper, or tutorial you will deep-read on Wednesday - A specific experiment or small project you will attempt on Friday - How you will document what you learned

Exercise 42.8: Career Positioning Statement

Write a 200-word career positioning statement that describes how your vibe coding skills complement your domain expertise or professional background. If you are a student or career changer, write this for the role you aspire to. Focus on the unique value you bring that AI alone cannot provide.

Exercise 42.9: Teaching Plan

You have been asked to run a 2-hour vibe coding workshop for a group of 10 people who have never written code. Using the teaching principles from Section 42.7, design the workshop: - Opening motivation (10 minutes): How will you explain why vibe coding matters? - Live demonstration (20 minutes): What will you build, and what will you show? - Guided practice (40 minutes): What project will participants build, and what prompts will you provide as starting points? - Independent practice (30 minutes): How will you structure open exploration time? - Reflection and next steps (20 minutes): How will you close?

Exercise 42.10: Bias Audit

Take any piece of code you have generated using AI during this book (from any chapter's exercises or your own projects). Perform a bias audit by answering these questions: 1. What cultural or demographic assumptions does the code make? 2. Does the user interface accommodate diverse users (languages, accessibility, name formats)? 3. If the code makes decisions about people, are those decisions fair? 4. What inputs or edge cases might reveal biased behavior? 5. What changes would you make to address any issues you found?

Tier 3: Analysis

Analyze situations, decompose problems, and evaluate approaches.

Exercise 42.11: Book Journey Map

Create a visual or written map of your personal learning journey through this book. For each part (I through VII), identify: - The most valuable chapter for you personally, and why - The concept that was hardest to grasp, and what helped you understand it - The skill you developed that has had the most practical impact - A connection between that part and another part of the book that you did not expect

Exercise 42.12: Tool Evolution Analysis

Choose one AI coding tool you have used during this book. Analyze how your relationship with it has changed over time: - How did you use it when you first started? - How do you use it now? - What misconceptions did you have about it initially? - What capabilities have you discovered that you did not expect? - What limitations have you identified that were not obvious at first? - How has your prompting style evolved? - What would it take for you to switch to a different tool?

Exercise 42.13: Failure Retrospective

Identify the biggest failure or disappointment you experienced while working through this book — a project that did not work, an exercise you could not complete, a concept you struggled with, or an AI interaction that produced terrible results. Write a detailed retrospective: - What happened? - What were the root causes? - What did you try to fix it? - What did you ultimately learn? - How has this failure made you a better vibe coder?

Exercise 42.14: Ethical Trade-Off Analysis

Consider the following trade-offs and analyze both sides: 1. Speed vs. Understanding: Vibe coding lets you build faster, but you may understand less of what you have built. Where is the right balance, and how does it depend on context? 2. Democratization vs. Quality: Vibe coding lowers the barrier to building software, but lower barriers may mean more poorly-built software in the world. Is this a net positive or negative, and why? 3. Environmental Cost vs. Productivity Gain: AI-assisted development consumes significant energy but also accelerates development. How should we weigh these costs and benefits?

For each trade-off, write a 150-200 word analysis that considers multiple perspectives and arrives at a nuanced position.

Exercise 42.15: Community Needs Assessment

Identify a community you belong to (a workplace team, a local organization, a student group, an online forum). Conduct a needs assessment for vibe coding adoption in that community: - Who would benefit most from vibe coding skills? - What barriers exist (access, knowledge, attitudes, resources)? - What format of instruction would work best (workshops, mentoring, online courses)? - What projects would be most compelling as demonstrations? - What support structures would be needed for ongoing learning?

Tier 4: Evaluation and Judgment

Make informed judgments, defend positions, and evaluate complex situations. These exercises have no single correct answer — they require thoughtful reasoning and personal judgment.

Exercise 42.16: The Responsibility Debate

Write a 500-word essay taking a position on the following question: "When AI-generated code causes harm — a security breach, a biased decision, a system failure — who bears primary responsibility: the human who prompted the AI, the company that built the AI model, or the organization that deployed the software?" Defend your position with specific reasoning and examples, and address at least one strong counterargument.

Exercise 42.17: Skills of the Future

It is 2030. AI coding tools have advanced significantly beyond their current capabilities. Write a job posting for a "Senior Vibe Coder" role at a technology company. What skills, experience, and qualities would you require? What would the day-to-day work look like? How would this differ from a traditional "Senior Software Engineer" job posting today? Justify your choices based on the trends and principles discussed in this chapter.

Exercise 42.18: The Ethics Review Board

You have been appointed to an ethics review board for a company that builds AI coding assistants. The company is considering the following feature: an AI agent that can autonomously commit code to production repositories, deploy applications, and manage infrastructure without human approval. Write a review memo (300-500 words) that: - Identifies the potential benefits of this feature - Identifies the potential risks and harms - Recommends whether the feature should be built, and under what conditions - Proposes specific safeguards if the feature moves forward

Exercise 42.19: Teaching Philosophy Statement

Write a 400-word teaching philosophy for vibe coding education. Address: - What is the most important thing to teach beginners? - How should the balance between AI tools and fundamental understanding be struck? - What role does failure play in learning? - How do you handle the ethical dimensions of teaching people to generate code they may not fully understand? - What outcome would make you proudest as a teacher?

Exercise 42.20: Evaluating This Book

Critically evaluate this textbook itself. Write a thoughtful review (500-800 words) that addresses: - What did the book do well? - What topics were missing or underdeveloped? - Which chapters were most and least valuable, and why? - How well did the book prepare you for independent work? - What advice would you give to the authors for a second edition? - Who would you recommend this book to, and with what caveats?

Be honest and specific. Constructive criticism is more valuable than praise.

Exercise 42.21: Personal Code of Ethics

Draft a personal code of ethics for your practice as a vibe coder. Include at least eight principles that address: - Your responsibility for AI-generated code - How you handle bias and fairness - Your commitment to security and privacy - Your approach to intellectual honesty and attribution - Your stance on equitable access - Your environmental responsibilities - Your obligations to users - Your professional conduct standards

For each principle, write a brief explanation of why you chose it and what it means in practice.

Exercise 42.22: The Five-Year Vision

Write a detailed vision (500 words) of what your professional life as a vibe coder looks like in five years. Be specific: - What kinds of projects are you building? - What tools are you using? - What is your role — individual contributor, team lead, entrepreneur, educator, something else? - How do you stay current? - What impact are you having? - What challenges do you anticipate?

Ground your vision in realistic extrapolation from current trends, while acknowledging uncertainty.

Tier 5: Creation and Synthesis

These exercises ask you to create original work that synthesizes concepts from across the entire book. They are substantial projects, not quick exercises. Choose at least two.

Exercise 42.23: The Vibe Coding Manifesto

Write a "Vibe Coding Manifesto" — a 500-1,000 word document that articulates the core values, principles, and commitments of the vibe coding movement. Draw on the ethical principles from Section 42.2, the enduring principles from Section 42.9, and the human element from Section 42.8. Your manifesto should be aspirational but practical, and should speak to both beginners and experienced practitioners.

Exercise 42.24: Design a Curriculum

Design a complete 8-week curriculum for teaching vibe coding to adults with no programming experience. For each week, specify: - Learning objectives (using Bloom's taxonomy) - Topics covered - Which chapters from this book to reference - A hands-on project for the week - Assessment criteria

Include a rationale for your curriculum design choices and explain how your curriculum addresses the ethical dimensions of vibe coding education.

Exercise 42.25: Build Your Learning Tracker

Using the concepts from Section 42.4 and the code in Example 01, build a personal learning tracker that you will actually use. Extend or customize the provided code to match your specific learning goals, preferred tracking format, and workflow. The tracker should: - Record skills you are developing - Track your progress over time - Include spaced repetition reminders for review - Generate periodic reports on your learning - Store data persistently

Exercise 42.26: Community Workshop Materials

Create a complete set of workshop materials for a 3-hour "Introduction to Vibe Coding" workshop. Include: - A facilitator guide with timing and talking points - Participant handouts with key concepts and prompt templates - Three hands-on exercises of increasing difficulty - A troubleshooting guide for common issues - A post-workshop resource list for continued learning

Exercise 42.27: The Capstone Reflection Essay

Write a 1,500-2,000 word reflective essay on your journey through this book and your growth as a vibe coder. Address: - Where you started — your background, your expectations, your concerns - Key turning points in your learning — moments when something clicked or shifted - How your understanding of AI-assisted development has changed - What surprised you most - What you are most proud of building or learning - How you think about software development differently now - What you plan to do next

This essay should be deeply personal and honest. It is for you as much as for anyone else.

Exercise 42.28: Teach-Back Video or Document

Create a comprehensive teach-back for one major concept from this book — a concept that took you significant effort to understand. Your teach-back should: - Explain the concept clearly for someone who has not read the book - Include at least one concrete example or demonstration - Address common misconceptions - Connect the concept to the broader themes of the book - Be suitable for sharing with your community or team

Format: written document (2,000+ words), video presentation (15-20 minutes), or interactive tutorial.

Exercise 42.29: Open Source Contribution Plan

Identify a real open-source project related to AI-assisted development (a tool, library, plugin, or resource collection). Create a detailed contribution plan that includes: - The project you chose and why - Three specific contributions you could make (code, documentation, tests, or issues) - A timeline for making your first contribution - How you would use your vibe coding skills to accelerate the contribution process - A draft of your first pull request description or issue report

Then, actually make the contribution. This exercise is not complete until you have submitted something to a real project.

Exercise 42.30: The Next Chapter

Design and begin building your first fully independent project — something not from this book, not from a tutorial, and not from someone else's idea. Something you want to exist in the world. Document the entire process: - How you chose the project - How you designed the architecture - What prompts you used and how you iterated - What challenges you encountered and how you solved them - What you would do differently next time

This is not an exercise in the traditional sense. This is the beginning of the rest of your journey as a vibe coder. Build something that matters to you. Then build something else. And keep building.

Congratulations on completing all exercises in "Vibe Coding: The Definitive Textbook for Coding with AI." The exercises end here, but your learning does not. Every project you build from this point forward is a new exercise, a new lesson, and a new opportunity to grow.