Possible: Amjad Masad on vibe coding, AI agents, and the end of boilerplate

**Amjad Masad** (0:00)
We have CEOs that finally feel unleashed, like they have Replit, and they have an idea, they don't have to go beg someone to do it. They can like just vibe code and bring into a meeting and look what I built. We wanna get to a point where you don't have to code at all. You should be in a creative space. A lot of coding is minutia. A lot of coding is accidental complexity. And turns out there's actually research. Doctors who play video games have much better reaction times. So if you wanna do a surgery, always ask them if they're a gamer.

**Reid Hoffman** (0:27)
Oh, not a gamer, sorry. Where's the gamer here?

**Amjad Masad** (0:30)
Get the gamer.

**Reid Hoffman** (0:31)
AI is reshaping how we work, learn and create. And nowhere is that change more tangible than in coding. That's where today's guest comes in. If you've heard of VibeCoding, you've heard of Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, the platform that lets anyone build software right from their browser.

**Aria Finger** (0:51)
Amjad grew up in Jordan, where he taught himself to code before studying computer science and moving to the United States. He became a founding engineer at Code Academy and later led JavaScript Infrastructure at Facebook. What you might not know is that he's also an empathetic, people-focused voice in the AI space, talking about issues and philosophy that others won't.

**Reid Hoffman** (1:13)
I've used Replit myself and it's clear to me this isn't what's next, it's what's happening right now. Replit makes building software as natural as writing an email, shifting the power of creation to anyone with an idea. So yes, this is an interview about coding and the fastest growing programming language in the world, English. But even more broadly, it's about how AI is already forcing us to rethink how work and society function, told through the lens of one field that's transforming before our eyes.

**Aria Finger** (1:45)
And we're thrilled to welcome to the show Amjad Masad.

**Reid Hoffman** (1:48)
Amjad, I'm so glad this worked out. We've known each other for a number of years and part of the thing I love about doing podcast is people that I learn from. And there's been a whole stack of things out of our conversations, you know, mostly at the Grove, but other places as well. So welcome to Possible. I'm so glad to have you.

**Amjad Masad** (2:03)
Thank you for having me. I'm really excited. I've been listening to the show recently. So happy to be here.

**Reid Hoffman** (2:07)
I'd like to start with a question about kind of you, right? Like in the Replit's about making things. And so you might even phrase this question of how are you made? You know, tell me about your early experience playing video games and how video games kind of did your trajectory into where, and then we'll get into more depth in Replit.

**Amjad Masad** (2:27)
Right. Yeah. So video games have been a huge part of my life. I started playing video games, I think, under like Atari, maybe even before getting my first PC.

**Reid Hoffman** (2:36)
I wonder how many people still know what Atari is. Yeah.

**Amjad Masad** (2:38)
Maybe we have to actually describe what Atari is, but Houston bit from history, Steve Jobs worked at Atari. I was like the Silicon Valley premier company for computers. And so I was, I just like was captivated by video games. And when I first got a computer, my first idea was like, can you actually make a video game on this thing? Well, it turned out it was initially very, very hard. But I remember going to every year back in Amman, Jordan, where I grew up, there's a computer show that my father would take us to. And it's like really big place where they have all sorts of new computers, new devices, CD-ROMs, whatever. And I bought a CD-ROM and a collection of CDs and I went home. And I didn't know what's in them. One of them was like a fax program, whatever. I just bought a CD. I just wanted to try it. One of them was like a visual programming experience that allowed me to build kind of game-like experiences. So one of the early games that I built was for my younger brother, five years younger than me, to teach him math. I think I was maybe eight and he was three or something like that. And there would be two boxes. It would be an equation. He'd have to enter the right number, like five plus blank equals six. And it's like one. If he gets it right, he gets a flaws, he gets it wrong, he gets a boo. And it worked out so well, he now works at Replit. So I taught him math early on.