Vibe coding with AI feels productive until it isn’t. Dorothy Vaughan’s team didn’t just operate the IBM—they understood the math behind it. That’s why they succeeded. Here’s why first principles must come before AI assistance.

I was recently on a video call with a friend, throwing around some ideas for a new product. I mentioned adding large signed numbers in assembly and using two’s complement. He asked me what two’s complement was. I was a little surprised that he didn’t know. He’s been a Java programmer for more than 30 years. Java and Python programmers (and others like gasp Commodore / MicroSoft BASIC) don’t have a native unsigned integer type. The language takes care of the details for you.