{"id":512397,"date":"2026-03-09T05:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/512397\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:22:08","slug":"im-78-and-vibe-coding-being-retired-doesnt-mean-im-behind-on-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/512397\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m 78 and Vibe Coding. Being Retired Doesn&#8217;t Mean I&#8217;m Behind on AI."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lewis Dickson, a 78-year-old retiree and technology consultant. It&#8217;s been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n<p>\n                    Loading audio narration&#8230;\n                  <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been in technology for a long time. I worked for IBM in the late 1970s. I did technology consulting for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta from 2015 to 2024. I&#8217;ve taught many engineers and customers over the years.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m in semi-retirement mode now. Technology isn&#8217;t work to me \u2014 it&#8217;s fun.<\/p>\n<p>When ChatGPT came out, I jumped on it. About six or eight months ago, when vibe coding became hot, I said, &#8220;Well, I need to try this out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I researched and found <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/emergent-vibe-coding-funding-khosla-softbank-2026-1\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Emergent<\/a>. What I liked is that they had the full stack. I didn&#8217;t have to connect anything or get my developers on the line to handle the back-end. I could just get on there and start.<\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-image topic-image\" viewbox=\"0 0 1 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/67bfbe5469253ccddf97b897.jpeg\" alt=\"Chong Ming Lee, Junior News Reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-sm-subtle body\">\n                            Every time Lee Chong Ming publishes a story, you&#8217;ll get an alert straight to your inbox!\n                        <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-sm-subtle body-sm\">\n                            Stay connected to Lee Chong Ming and get more of their work as it publishes.\n                        <\/p>\n<p>I began with a couple of simple things. Now I&#8217;ve probably done a dozen or more <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/software-engineers-on-vibe-coding-ai-tools-2026-1\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">vibe-coded apps.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The last two were for this AED company. They wanted the ability to access their existing camera provider&#8217;s website and extract their data. So I vibe-coded an app that would do that \u2014 pull that data in.<\/p>\n<p>I also vibe-coded an <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/microsoft-ai-ceo-vibe-coding-software-replace-apps-mustafa-suleyman-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AI voice app<\/a> for them. It&#8217;s a web app, so you go to it on your phone, hit a button, and ask, &#8220;What&#8217;s our AED status?&#8221; It checks the database, then returns the information.<\/p>\n<p>When I first showed the CEO a demo, he lit up. He thought it was the coolest thing he&#8217;d ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>Older people can move fast<\/p>\n<p>Most people think an old guy like me would have a flip phone.<\/p>\n<p>When I started as a ham radio operator at 13, I was using Morse code on tubes, transmitters, and receivers. To go from that to what we&#8217;ve gone through with phones and cellphones, and then to watch that transition over the years into AI and be closely involved, I just love the technology \u2014 both the hardware and the software.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of young kids today are <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/agentic-engineering-andrej-karpathy-vibe-coding-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">into software <\/a>but don&#8217;t know much about the hardware piece. Having a wide background comes in handy.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s often an assumption that gray hair means outdated technology skills. I understand where that perception comes from, but it&#8217;s not always accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Many of us have moved just as quickly with the rise of AI as younger professionals. The advantage we bring is perspective: decades of experience that allow us to apply AI strategically, not just technically.<\/p>\n<p>Some people would say <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/retired-ai-chatbot-replacing-jobs-2025-8\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">older people retire <\/a>and lose purpose. I&#8217;ve never had that problem because I&#8217;ve always had a passion for doing technical things.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m constantly on my laptop and phone, doing something related to AI and learning. You&#8217;ve got to watch a lot of YouTube and social media, learn what&#8217;s coming and what&#8217;s new.<\/p>\n<p>How seniors can use AI for everyday life<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m teaching <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/workers-over-age-80-embrace-ai-2025-8\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AI to seniors<\/a> now. In my class back in November, we were talking about <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/trump-trade-advisor-peter-navarro-ai-internalize-data-center-costs-2026-2\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">data centers<\/a>, what&#8217;s behind AI.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lady named Sue who&#8217;s 100 years old. Near the end of the class, Sue came up and asked, &#8220;What&#8217;s a semiconductor?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I have a hardware background, so I answered her question at a very high level. She listened intently and wrote down a few notes.<\/p>\n<p>After that class, I thought, &#8220;I need to do more for her.&#8221; So I used AI to create a video that went through the evolution of tubes in the 20s and 30s \u2014 things they could relate to \u2014 and old radios and TVs. Then we went to transistors in the late 40s and 50s, and what that meant.<\/p>\n<p>The seniors I taught have now learned enough to take over their internal resident newsletter and use AI to help write it. They also created images for the newsletter with AI.<\/p>\n<p>They are using <a target=\"_self\" class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/non-technical-people-vibecoding-lessons-ai-apps-2025-9\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;tout_click&quot;,&quot;index&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;,&quot;product_field&quot;:&quot;bi_value_unassigned&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AI to shop<\/a>, check for bargains, and research their items.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve shown them how to recognize different plants and birds with AI. They&#8217;ll walk through their garden area, take a picture, and ask ChatGPT or Gemini.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a story to share about vibe coding? Contact this reporter at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/mailto:cmlee@businessinsider.com\" data-track-click=\"{&quot;click_type&quot;:&quot;other&quot;,&quot;element_name&quot;:&quot;body_link&quot;,&quot;event&quot;:&quot;outbound_click&quot;}\" rel=\" nofollow noopener\">cmlee@businessinsider.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lewis Dickson, a 78-year-old retiree and technology consultant. It&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-512397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}