🚀 Vibe Coding — Issue #17
Under Pressure: Debugging, Incidents & High-Stakes Decisions with AI
Incident Response • Debugging • Root Cause • Calm Thinking • AI Without Panic
Most guidance about AI assumes calm conditions.
But real work often happens when:
- production is broken
- users are blocked
- deadlines are looming
- stress is high
- decisions must be made fast
Issue #17 is about Vibe Coding when the pressure is on.
🧠 The Core Risk Under Pressure
When stress is high, AI misuse spikes.
Common failure modes:
❌ copying fixes without understanding
❌ shotgun changes
❌ “just try it” debugging
❌ rewriting instead of isolating
❌ fixing symptoms, not causes
Vibe Coding under pressure is about slowing thinking just enough to avoid compounding mistakes.
🎯 Principle #1: Stabilize First, Then Investigate
In incidents, the first goal is stability, not elegance.
Vibe Rule
Stop the bleeding before diagnosing the disease.
Vibe Prompt (Stabilization)
We are in an incident.
Do NOT propose refactors.
Focus only on:
- immediate stabilization options
- lowest-risk mitigations
- reversible actions
This keeps AI from suggesting dangerous changes.
🧩 Principle #2: AI as a Triage Partner
AI excels at sorting signals from noise.
Use it to:
- group symptoms
- identify likely failure zones
- rule out unrelated systems
Vibe Prompt (Triage)
Given these symptoms and logs,
help triage:
- most likely causes
- least likely causes
- what evidence would confirm or deny each
This prevents random debugging.
⚡ Principle #3: Hypothesis-Driven Debugging
Under pressure, guessing feels productive.
It isn’t.
Vibe Coding forces explicit hypotheses.
Vibe Prompt (Hypothesis)
Form 3 plausible hypotheses for this bug.
For each:
- expected evidence
- fastest way to test
- risk of being wrong
This keeps actions intentional.
🧪 Principle #4: Make One Change at a Time
AI often suggests bundled fixes.
That’s dangerous in incidents.
Vibe Rule
One change. One test. One observation.
Vibe Prompt (Controlled Change)
Suggest the smallest reversible change
to test this hypothesis.
Rollback becomes easy.
🛡️ Principle #5: Avoid “AI Panic Refactors”
When pressure is high, AI tends to:
- rewrite functions
- “modernize” logic
- simplify aggressively
Vibe Rule
No refactors during incidents unless they reduce risk immediately.
Fix first. Improve later.
🧠 Principle #6: Post-Incident Learning (While It’s Fresh)
AI is incredibly valuable after the incident.
Vibe Prompt (Post-Incident Review)
Help write a lightweight incident review:
- what happened
- why it happened
- what signals we missed
- what guardrails would have helped
- what to change next time
This turns pain into prevention.
🧠 Advanced Pattern: “Calm AI, Calm Humans”
Under pressure:
- humans panic
- AI amplifies panic if unconstrained
Vibe Coding adds structure that keeps both calm.
Good incident AI usage is:
✔ narrow
✔ explicit
✔ reversible
✔ documented
🧪 Real-World Scenarios Where This Matters
• production outages
• broken deployments
• failing integrations
• performance regressions
• data inconsistencies
• urgent hotfixes
Vibe Coding doesn’t remove stress —
it prevents stress from hijacking decisions.
🧪 Issue #17 Challenge
Next time something breaks (or simulate one):
- Ask AI to stabilize, not fix
- Generate hypotheses
- Test one thing
- Observe results
- Document what you learned
Even a fake incident builds real skill.
🧠 The Big Lesson of Issue #17
AI is most dangerous when:
- time is short
- confidence is high
- understanding is low
Vibe Coding keeps judgment in the loop — especially when it matters most.
🔮 Coming in Issue #18
“Vibe Coding & Creativity: Exploration, Prototyping & Safe Experimentation”
We’ll explore:
- creative ideation with AI
- rapid experimentation without debt
- sandboxing ideas safely
- separating play from production