Build It to Understand It: How to Learn, Teach, and Vibe Code with AI - Making Software
How do you truly understand complex tech topics in the era of AI? In this episode of Making Software, Jess Temporal shares her core philosophy: "Build it to understand it." We dive deep into the creative process behind teaching technical concepts, the reality of "vibe coding," and how to manage a multi-tool AI stack (Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Grok) without getting overwhelmed. What You'll Learn: - Learning Philosophy: Why building hands-on projects is the ultimate way to master and teach new tech. Vibe Coding vs. Security: How to leverage AI code generation while keeping your app sound with tests, logs, and security prompts. - Multi-Model AI Workflows: How to orchestrate Gemini, Claude, Cursor, and Grok across daily dev tasks. - System Postmortems: Using AI to generate postmortems and write rule guidelines after a system outage. - Overcoming AI Overwhelm: How setting real-world project constraints drives focused learning. 00:00 - Intro: Making Software Podcast 02:11 - Jess's Background: Biomedical Informatics to DevRel 08:34 - How Non-Traditional Paths Train You to Explain Tech 15:34 - "Build It to Understand It": The Hero's Journey in Tech Teaching 18:27 - Do Engineers Still Need to Read Code Line-by-Line? 21:10 - How to Ask Your AI Agent If Your App Is Secure 24:52 - Vibe Coding in Production: Handling Outages & AI Postmortems 31:12 - Breaking Down the Multi-AI Stack (Gemini, Claude, Cursor, Grok) 36:40 - What Is a Harness? Navigating AI Jargon 38:52 - Beating AI Overwhelm Through Practical Constraints If you enjoy this content and want to learn more about identity, security, and access management, subscribe to our channel! Have a topic you'd like to see covered? Let us know if the comments below 👀 ___________________________________________ 🔵Try Auth0 for free - https://a0.to/auth0 🔵The Auth0 blog - https://a0.to/blog 🔵Ask questions on the Community Forum - https://a0.to/community ___________________________________________ Follow Us on Social 🔵 X / Twitter - https://a0.to/twitter 🔵LinkedIn - https://a0.to/linkedin