IDEAS, DECISIONS & LESSONS

Journal

Notes on AI, architecture and building useful products.

919 articles

29 Mar 2026 · 6 min read

english-lesson

English Lesson — Sunday Noon: Weekly Review Special

Daily English practice for tech professionals. Noon session — vocabulary deep dive with pronunciation, exercises, and real-world examples.

29 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

agile

English for Sprint Planning: How to Estimate and Negotiate Story Points Like a Pro

Master the English phrases Vietnamese tech leads need to run confident sprint planning sessions — from estimation debates to scope negotiation and pushing back on unrealistic timelines.

29 Mar 2026 · 6 min read

english

Speaking Practice: Tech Pronunciation Drills for Vietnamese Developers

Shadowing scripts, tongue twisters, and pronunciation drills targeting the hardest English sounds for Vietnamese tech professionals — th, v/f, r/l, and short vowels.

29 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

communication

How to Speak to Stakeholders in English: A Vietnamese Tech Lead's Guide

Real phrases, scripts, and a 5-minute drill to help you communicate clearly with managers, clients, and executives in international teams.

29 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Is Free: What It Actually Means for Developer Economics

Google just made Gemini Code Assist free and priced Flash-Lite at $0.25/M tokens. After 15 years building production systems, here's what this cost collapse really changes about how we build.

29 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

code review

Tech Lead English: How to Give Code Reviews That Don't Kill Team Morale

Master the English phrases and tone needed to deliver effective, respectful code reviews as a Vietnamese tech lead in international teams.

28 Mar 2026 · 6 min read

english-lesson

English Lesson — Saturday Morning: Social English & Small Talk

Daily English practice for tech professionals. Morning session covering social conversation, casual small talk, and everyday social situations with pronunciation guide, exercises, and real-world examples.

28 Mar 2026 · 5 min read

english-lesson

English Lesson — Saturday Noon: Social Phrases & Casual English

Daily English practice for tech professionals. Noon session — vocabulary deep dive with pronunciation, exercises, and real-world examples.

28 Mar 2026 · 12 min read

Build a Full-Stack Startup for $20/Month: The 2026 Free-Tier Stack

A comprehensive guide to the modern free-tier tech stack that lets you build, deploy, and scale a startup for roughly $20/month. No servers. No DevOps team. No funding required. Just an idea and WiFi.