I’m not a programmer — I’m a vibe-coder, and here’s how I broke my site by “optimizing” it 😅

Hey Indie Hackers! 👋

Just dropping by to remind you I still exist and still vibe-code my way through building my tiny SaaS: MyFitTrainingPlan.com.

So, what’s vibe-coding? Well, I just learned the term — it’s basically when you “code” with the help of AI because you have zero actual programming skills. And honestly, I love it. Calling myself a real developer would be an insult to real developers everywhere, but “vibe-coder”? Now that’s a Facebook badge I’m proud of.

It kinda feels like being a “lamer” back in the 2000s — you know, someone who breaks computers just by using them. That’s me with code.

Example: Last week I wanted to boost my PageSpeed Insights score. Google said: “Hey, try reducing your style.css size!”
My genius vibe-coder brain went: “Easy! Let’s just delete all spaces!”
So I did a quick replace “ ” with “” in my style.css. Saved it straight on my live server. Bam — file size down, score up. I was a hero in my own head.

Then I opened my website. And, dear real programmers, you already know what happened:

• color: black → color:black (okay, that’s fine)

• padding: 0 10px 20px 0 → padding:010px20px0px (uh oh)

• .article .span {} → .article.span {} (oops)

Result: my beautiful fitness site looked like it was coded by a sugar-hyped 8-year-old. Buttons overlapping text, random blocks floating to Mars. And guess what? No backup. Zero.

I spent two whole days manually putting spaces back in the CSS. Sometimes with a magnifying glass. Is that .articlea or .article a? Is that 01px or 0 1px?

So yeah, I’m not a programmer. I’m a vibe-coder. And I wear that badge with honor.

What about you guys? Any equally dumb mistakes you’ve made while “optimizing” your project? Make me feel less alone! 😂👇