Scale AI billionaire Alexandr Wang says “vibe-coding” is today’s Bill Gates moment—time spent hands-on with AI tools now could compound into a career-defining advantage later. His advice: log thousands of hours experimenting with AI coding assistants and workflows.
Vibe-coding typically refers to using AI to generate and refine software through natural language prompts, paired with unstructured tinkering to learn the tools’ limits and workflows. Wang argues the mindset mirrors the early grit of founders like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg—and that the same “be there early, go deep” dynamic is unfolding again.
“When personal computers first came about, the people who spent the most time with it and grew up with it had this immense advantage in the future economy—like the Bill Gateses, even the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world,” the Gen Z cofounder said. “I think that moment is happening right now.”
“I think it’s actually in some ways this incredible moment of discontinuity,” Wang added. “If you just happen to spend 10,000 hours playing with the tools and figure out how to use them better than other people, that’s a huge advantage.”
“It’s impossible to understate the degree to which I’ve been radicalized by AI coding,” Wang said. “You just have to figure out how to use the tools maximally.”