Where do Vibe Coding's ideas come from?

Over the past six months or so, I’ve vibe-coded a whole bunch of different stuff—like a layout tool for Xiaohongshu, my personal blog, a writing app, plus all kinds of little projects and skills.

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To be honest, my approach is kinda different from most. A lot of people start by scouring the internet for other people’s pain points. Me? I just observe myself first.

Like, what feels clunky in my daily workflow? What steps am I constantly repeating? What tasks are just a total pain to get through?

Those little moments are basically where you find the seed of a good product. But here’s the catch: you gotta consciously switch yourself into “observer mode.”

Take scrolling short videos, for example. Normally, I just watch whatever catches my eye without thinking. But when I’m in observer mode, I start noticing things like shot composition, storytelling flow, that kind of stuff.

So why’s this so important? Because we usually just get used to how things are done and stop seeing the flaws. But when you actually pause and look closely, you start realizing there’s room to optimize almost everything.

For example, I recently vibe-coded this writing app that I actually use every single day. Since I write a lot, I kept getting interrupted switching back and forth between my editor and AI. It really killed my flow.

So I figured, why not just do it all in one place? Like, I write a bit, the AI reads the context and offers to continue, and I just hit accept or ignore.

Ended up throwing together this little web app. Feels so much better now.

Now, the downside to doing it this way is that I might just be solving my own little problems instead of tapping into some huge market gap. So yeah, most of these vibe-coded apps right now? My main user base is just me.

Outside of self-observation, another trick is to just expose yourself to more stuff. Back when I first graduated, my product manager told me this gem: “Innovation is basically remixing.” The more you watch and absorb, the more new ideas just naturally click into place.

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I’d say it breaks down into two main types. First, seeing how other people solve problems. I usually just scroll X for this. You’ve got tons of builders sharing their tools, interfaces, and workflows. Sometimes a tiny little design detail is all it takes to spark a new idea. Second, keeping an eye on where the next wave of cool products is popping up.