Earlier this month, I did something I hadn’t done in over 15 years:
I rebuilt a stock market simulation game I had originally created during business school.
The original was built on Ruby on Rails.
This time, I went lean — prototyping with HTML, JS, and lightweight AI-assisted dev tools in what I’d call a vibe coding session.
But this post isn’t about the code.
It’s about what I learned — and why every founder, product owner, or GTM leader should prototype at least one thing themselves in this way.
🧪 What Is Vibe Coding, Really?
The term vibe coding was coined by Andrej Karpathy, but it was a recent post by Strangeloop Canon that captured its essence:
“If AGI is the future, vibe coding is the present.”
To me, vibe coding is building with momentum, not perfection.
No heavyweight specs. No team syncs. Just one person, a rough idea, and tools that let you think through your fingertips.
You’re not coding to launch. You’re coding to understand.
And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need.
🧠 What I Learned From Rebuilding QSE
1. Building sharpens your strategy lens.
When you rebuild something from scratch, every interaction becomes a test of friction vs flow. That mindset translates directly into GTM design, onboarding strategy, and product-market fit thinking.
2. AI is best when it feels smart.
My game features a basic rules-based AI opponent. Not sophisticated — but just enough to create pressure and tension. It reminded me that AI doesn’t need to be advanced, it needs to feel aligned with the user’s rhythm.
3. Prototypes create unexpected clarity.
Tiny design decisions (like how many clicks it takes to place a trade) turned into insights about attention spans, pacing, and simplicity — lessons I’ll carry into larger GTM and transformation conversations.
🔁 Why This Resonated Beyond the Code
Rebuilding QSE wasn’t a nostalgia trip. It was a reconnection with creative flow.
It reminded me of how much clarity you gain when you stop whiteboarding and start building.
We often separate “strategy” and “execution” as different domains.
But I’ve found that prototyping collapses that gap. You see things faster. You think better. And sometimes, you spot the real issue — not in the brief, but in the build.
If you’re leading a product, driving a GTM motion, or exploring AI integration, I genuinely recommend vibe coding — or at least, vibing with your builders more closely.
🕹️ Curious to try the game I rebuilt?
👉 Play QSE Reloaded
