The goal of technology has always been to raise the level of abstraction, making complex tasks accessible to more people. According to Replit CEO Amjad Masad, we are at a pivotal moment in software development, a shift he champions as the move from traditional engineering to "Vibe Coding." It's a future where ideas, not syntax, are the primary currency.
In a recent interview, Masad laid out his vision for a world where software creation is as intuitive as expressing a thought, driven by autonomous AI agents that act not as assistants, but as teammates.
From Vibe Coding to Autonomous Teammates
The term "Vibe Coding," popularized by Andrej Karpathy, describes an intuitive process of guiding an AI to generate and modify code. For Masad, this is just the beginning. The true evolution is the development of autonomous agents, and Replit's Agent 3 embodies this leap forward.
"The thing we want to get to is actually working with the agent as if it was a teammate, as if it was an engineer you've hired."
Unlike a simple co-pilot, an agent like Replit's is designed to take on entire tasks, with capabilities that mirror a human developer:
- Endurance: It can work for hours on a complex problem.
- Autonomous Testing: It opens a browser, clicks around, and tests its own code to ensure functionality.
- Self-Correction: It can review its code, read logs, and refactor its work to solve problems.
This transforms the development process from a partnership into an act of delegation, freeing the human to focus on the high-level vision.
The "Don't Learn to Code" Philosophy
Masad's most provocative stance is his advice to aspiring creators: stop worrying about learning to code first.
"If you're trying to build something, just don't worry about learning to code first. Go build it first. If you have to learn to code, you'll learn it along the way."
He clarifies this isn't for those who want to be specialist computer scientists. It's for the entrepreneurs, the builders, the people with ideas who are often blocked by the "accidental complexity" of traditional programming. He draws a historical parallel to Grace Hopper, the inventor of the compiler, who wanted people to program in "English." The trend has always been toward higher levels of abstraction, and AI is the ultimate fulfillment of that trend.
Replit's Moat: A Decade of Technical Depth
In a world where anyone can build a "Vibe Coding" platform in an afternoon by calling an API, how does Replit differentiate itself? Masad argues it's not UI/UX, which is easily copied, but the deep, underlying technical infrastructure built over a decade.
The core of Replit's moat is its custom distributed "Copy-on-Write" file system. This isn't just a technical detail; it unlocks critical capabilities for AI agents:
- Instantaneous Test Environments: An agent can fork the entire development environment in milliseconds to test changes without corrupting the main codebase.
- Parallel Execution: Replit can spin up hundreds of environments simultaneously, allowing multiple agents to try different solutions to a hard problem in parallel and pick the best one.
This technical depth, he believes, is what allows Replit's agents to be truly autonomous and is a differentiator that will take competitors years to replicate.
The Future is "Agents All the Way Down"
Looking ahead, Masad predicts a radical restructuring of the software industry itself. The traditional application layer will collapse into agents. Instead of building an internal tool with a UI for a human to use, an agent will simply monitor a system (like an email inbox) and execute the task automatically.
This has profound implications for the SaaS industry.
- Vertical SaaS: Companies offering point solutions are in trouble.
- New Industry: A new market for "vertical agents" (e.g., the best accountant agent) will emerge.
- Business Models: Pricing will shift from "per-seat" to "value-based," as agents are hired to displace seats, not fill them.
On the future of work, he is direct:
"I think people will lose their jobs. I think not saying that is being dishonest. I think any CEO working in the space will be able to intuit that."
However, he doesn't see it as the end of work, but a massive disruption where those who learn to leverage these new tools will find tremendous value.
标题： Replit CEO Amjad Masad 访谈：论 Vibe 编程、AI 代理以及为何你不应再学写代码
摘要： 与 Replit CEO Amjad Masad 的深度对话，探讨“Vibe 编程”的兴起、像 Agent 3 这样的自主 AI 代理的力量，以及他备受争议的观点：有抱负的创造者应该停止学习编程，直接开始创造。我们一同探索软件、工作和经济的未来。
内容：
技术的终极目标始终是提升抽象层次，让复杂的任务变得触手可及。在 Replit CEO Amjad Masad 看来，我们正处于软件开发的 pivotal 时刻，他将这一转变誉为从传统工程到“Vibe 编程”的跃迁。这是一个未来，在这个未来里，思想，而非语法，才是核心的流通货币。
在最近的一次访谈中，Masad 描绘了他的愿景：一个软件创造如同表达思想般直观的世界，由自主 AI 代理驱动，而这些代理的角色不再是助理，而是真正的团队伙伴。
从 Vibe 编程到自主团队伙伴
“Vibe 编程”一词由 Andrej Karpathy 推广开来，它描述了一种引导 AI 生成和修改代码的直观过程。对 Masad 而言，这仅仅是开始。真正的进化是自主代理的开发，而 Replit 的 Agent 3 正是这一飞跃的体现。
“我们想要达到的目标是，与代理共事就像与一位你雇佣的工程师队友合作一样。”
与简单的编程副驾驶不同，像 Replit 这样的代理被设计用来承担完整的任务，其能力与人类开发者如出一辙：
- 耐力： 它可以为一个复杂问题工作数小时。
- 自主测试： 它会打开浏览器，四处点击，并测试自己编写的代码以确保功能正常。
- 自我修正： 它可以审查自己的代码、阅读日志，并重构其工作以解决问题。
这将开发过程从一种合作关系转变为一种委派行为，将人类从繁琐的细节中解放出来，专注于更高层次的愿景。
“不要学写代码”的哲学
Masad 最具挑衅性的立场是他给有抱负的创造者的建议：别再把学习编程放在第一位。
“如果你想创造点什么，就别先去操心学写代码。先去创造它。如果非要学，你会在创造的路上学会的。”
他澄清说，这并非针对那些想成为专业计算机科学家的人。这是为企业家、创造者、以及那些有想法但常常被传统编程的“偶然复杂性”所阻碍的人准备的。他引用了编译器的发明者 Grace Hopper 的历史典故，她希望人们能用“英语”来编程。这一趋势始终是朝向更高层次的抽象化发展，而 AI 正是这一趋势的终极实现。
Replit 的护城河：十年的技术积淀
在一个任何人都可以通过调用 API 在一个下午就搭建出“Vibe 编程”平台的世界里，Replit 如何脱颖而出？Masad 认为，护城河不在于容易被复制的 UI/UX，而在于耗费十年时间构建的深厚底层技术基础设施。
Replit 护城河的核心是其定制的分布式“写时复制”（Copy-on-Write）文件系统。这不仅仅是一个技术细节，它为 AI 代理解锁了关键能力：
- 即时测试环境： 代理可以在毫秒内 fork 整个开发环境来测试变更，而不会污染主代码库。
- 并行执行： Replit 可以同时启动数百个环境，让多个代理并行尝试不同的方案来解决一个难题，并从中选择最佳方案。
他相信，正是这种技术深度，使得 Replit 的代理能够真正实现自主，并且这是竞争对手需要数年时间才能复制的差异化优势。
未来是“代理无处不在”
展望未来，Masad 预言软件行业本身将发生根本性的重构。传统的应用层将坍缩为代理。未来不再是构建一个带 UI 的内部工具供人使用，而是由一个代理直接监控某个系统（如邮箱），并自动执行任务。
这对 SaaS 行业有着深远的影响：
- 垂直 SaaS： 提供单点解决方案的公司将陷入困境。
- 新兴行业： 一个“垂直代理”（例如，最好的会计师代理）的新市场将会出现。
- 商业模式： 定价模式将从“按席位收费”转变为“按价值收费”，因为代理是被雇来取代席位的，而不是填补席位。
关于工作的未来，他直言不讳：
“我认为人们将会失业。我认为不承认这一点是不诚实的。任何在这个领域工作的 CEO 都能凭直觉感受到这一点。”
然而，他并不认为这是工作的终结，而是一场巨大的颠覆，那些学会利用这些新工具的人将发现巨大的价值。