"Coding is just not in me." (Lingling fell asleep — front row — every single class of high-school CS.) Then one month changed everything: six hackathons, three websites and apps, and various different AI agents. This week, the apple we peel apart is the box called "I'm not technical" — and why the scariest part was never the code. It was the first step. 🍌 Stay bananas.
This episode is the honest, funny play-by-play of going from terrified to obsessed: the corporate laptop that wouldn't run a single AI tool, the API key that refused to set up, the two front-row neighbors who were always five steps ahead ("it works for me!"), and the Chipotle that genuinely saved the day. It's about how the first step is the scariest part, why the setup is harder than the building, and what it feels like when your identity quietly rewrites itself from "I can't" to "I can do this." Follow along Lingling's journey to fall in love with vibe coding.
*What do you want to listen to next? Do you want to join a virtual workshop on EP2 vibe coding or EP1 rejection is hot? Any feedback on the podcast? email me at [email protected], can't wait to hear from you!
Timestamps
00:00 Intro: the lifelong fear of coding
00:40 High-school CS class & the Bill Gates dream
01:47 The second class: asleep at the laptop
03:07 One month later: 6 hackathons, obsessed with vibe coding
05:22 Brian's AI gifts: a storybook & a website
07:56 First event: Agent of Change (and the laptop fail)
09:34 The Google workshop & getting stuck on setup
12:03 Phase three: actually building things
13:43 The tools: Claude, Lovable, Claude Code & Terminal
16:38 A new identity: "I can code"
19:03 "Is apple a banana?"
Resources & Links:
- Claude
- Gemini
- Lovable
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
