🌙 Saturday Night Code
Last night was a Saturday.
I pushed new code for Kitbuy at around 2 AM.
No boss.
No deadline.
Just me, my laptop, and the quiet hum of thought.
Because for me, coding isn’t work — it’s how I live.
I’m a Golang Indie Hacker,
and that means sometimes I have to write code on Sundays.
While the world rushes toward No Code, Low Code, and AI stacks,
I’m still here — a farmer tilling the code fields by hand.
I’m not against AI, but I also refuse to hand over my thinking to it.
Those who truly succeed with AI all share one thing in common:
They’ve failed before.
They’re not lazy thinkers.
They’ve learned how to think deeply.
But then there are others — chasing shortcuts, hoping technology will think for them.
People talk about brain rot — the decay of thought.
But to me, the real danger is brain bot — developers who let AI think in their place.
I don’t judge.
I just believe:
“The core of programming is thought.
The core of being human is thinking.”
✨ The Chance of a Dreamer
I didn’t start coding because of some grand childhood dream.
I was good at math, but numbers never made me feel anything.
It wasn’t until ninth grade, standing in a quiet room, counting tiles on the floor,
that I realized I loved to think — to see patterns in the abstract.
Everything in life has a beginning,
and mine came from somewhere unexpected: the military.
While serving, I met an officer who sparked my curiosity about programming.
After leaving the army, I started learning HTML and CSS on my own.
That was where the journey began.
As Vietnamese composer Trúc Phương once said:
“Everything is material for life.”
And maybe, for me — programming is the material of my life.
💔 Failure, Return, and an Unfinished Dream
I once tried to start a company.
And I failed.
I thought I was building something great,
but after it collapsed, I went back to my hometown — broke, starting from zero.
I did whatever I could to survive while keeping the dream alive:
Delivering packages to make ends meet.
Building small websites to keep my server online.
Doing affiliate marketing to pay the bills.
Back then, I stopped chasing success or fame.
Just being able to live by my own code was enough.
But inside, one dream still burned quietly:
“The dream of technological independence.”
I started coding in 2015.
Almost ten years later, I look back and see a stubborn fool — but a fool who never quit.
Some people say I’m crazy for spending five years building a web framework only I use.
Maybe they’re right.
But I still love it — the code, and the version of myself who believed it was worth it.
Some build a website in five days.
I’ve spent five years, and my dream still isn’t done.
I once said — and I don’t need anyone to understand:
“I go against the wind not because I’m a kite,
but because I’m a lonely bird.”
Maybe you’ll meet me, and I won’t say hello. Forgive me.
I might be there, but my mind’s already floating somewhere in the cloud.
🌀 Golang — More Than a Language
Lately, I’ve been diving deeper into pure algorithms.
They make me think, stretch, and rewire my mind.
My favorite language? Golang.
It forces me to rethink the simplest things —
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division.
It’s no longer just a programming language.
It’s a way of life.
You might say I’m stubborn — with Rust, Vlang, Python, Node.js out there.
But I’m not here to argue about languages.
Because for me:
Mindset matters more than syntax.
Philosophy matters more than frameworks.
Someone once asked me,
“Why go to university?”
I replied,
“To learn philosophy — and how to approach problems.”
I don’t have a degree.
And I don’t need a mouse pad with a university logo on it.
🔁 Programming — A Journey With No End
Programming is a lot like life itself.
It has if, else, while, and with —
just like the loops and conditions we all go through.
When we leave school, we dream of oceans.
When we come home, we dream of something smaller — but closer to the heart.
Whether or not we become successful doesn’t matter.
What matters is what ten years of youth — and five years of code — have taught us.
In 2018–2019, when everything fell apart,
I thought about quitting — going home, finding a quiet job.
But somehow, I went back to the city.
Kept learning Go.
Kept tinkering.
Kept writing code that no one taught me.
And when the code finally ran, I smiled for the whole day.
I write about Indie Hackers,
but I always call myself a Golang Indie Hacker.
Because just saying Indie Hacker feels too practical, too focused on money.
I love Golang because it confuses me.
I love Indie Hacking because it keeps me innocent.
Technology changes every day.
But my passion stays the same.
And that’s enough.
It’s a beautiful day.
And I’m still here — writing code.
If the clouds still hold a bit of sunlight,
then I know I’m still lucky. 🌤
From a failed startup to returning home empty-handed, I kept building my dream — five years spent crafting a personal web framework no one else used.
But that’s okay. Because for me, Golang isn’t just a tool. It’s a lifestyle.
Programming is a journey with no finish line.
And every day I still get to code is a beautiful day.
🧭 NOTES
Article originally posted in 2024, reposted in 2025
AI-powered English translation
Read the original Vietnamese version here: https://hnq.vn/blog/hom-nay-la-mot-ngay-dep-troi-e-viet-code
💌 More About Me
Blog: huynhnhanquoc.com
GitHub: github.com/huynhnhanquoc
Open Source: github.com/kitmodule
Buy me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/huynhnhanquoc
Keep me Dreaming: ko-fi.com/huynnhanquoc