# 30, Code, and Life


## The Passion and Solitude of a Coder

> “Lie to me if you must, but don’t ever leave me.”  
> — *from the song Kiếp Đam Mê*

That lyric has stayed with me for years.  
It speaks a truth most people try to deny — we are all bound by our passions, whether it’s love, work, or the quiet rhythm of code running at 2 AM.

At 30, I finally understand what *purpose* means — what *life* means.  
I’m grateful to still be here, still writing these lines.  
There are things in my heart that words can’t quite carry — not because I don’t want to share them, but because I’ve never been good at explaining what I feel.

Thank you, youth.  
Thank you, failure.  
They’ve both taught me that success is never easy.

I’ve learned the value of effort — those sleepless nights chasing a broken algorithm, those endless loops of debugging where a single misplaced character can ruin your logic.

While the world rushes to build AI Agents, I’m still here writing my own generator algorithms.  
I move slower — not because I lack skill, but because I see things differently.

I’m a code addict.  
A Sunday coder.  
A **Golang Indie Hacker**.

## 10 Years of Coding, 5 Years Building a Web Framework

What I love most about programming is control — the quiet power to shape the rules of your own digital world.

Only recently did I truly understand this:

> “There’s no *right* code — only code that fits the model.”

There’s no best technology, no safest solution.  
The only thing we can control is how *we* write code.

I don’t judge anyone’s approach — because really, *who am I to judge?*

While others chase the next trendy framework, I dig into the foundations — the core mechanics beneath the syntax.  
When others build a website in five days, I spend five years building mine — and it’s still unfinished.

I’m not built for business.  
I’m built for craft.

I once did SEO purely through code — the one thing I do best.  
And when people discuss high-level technical strategies, I realize how small I still am — how much there is left to learn.

When the world uses AI to generate entire websites in seconds,  
I’m still here, typing each line manually, *step by step…*

Because what matters isn’t what you *see*,  
but what you *understand* beneath it.

## Golang – The Blue Mouse

If someone asked me, *“What is Golang?”*  
I’d say:

> “It’s a little blue mouse running concurrently through the clouds — through pipes.”

I love the word *pipe*.  
Ever since I studied Angular, I’ve been fascinated by RxJS — those elegant “eels in the water pipes.”  
Sometimes the water pressure breaks everything, but that’s what makes it alive.

I love code.  
I love algorithms — from the simplest to the most intricate.

But how do you explain to someone that you might need a million dollars just to run them?  
It sounds crazy — yet if someone *did* invest that, it’d be pretty cool. *Haha.*

## Skill and Wealth – Two Different Worlds

My brother once asked me:

> “Quốc, you’re so good at what you do — so why aren’t you rich?”

I didn’t argue.  
Because I know — *being good* and *being rich* are two entirely different things.  
They just happen to start with the same letter.

After five years coding alone, I’ve learned this:  
Technologies change.  
Languages evolve.  
But problems — and the drive to solve them — remain.

We keep looking for tools to make us *faster*,  
but sometimes forget the things that make us *steadier.*

My dream began a decade ago, when I was a 20-year-old kid obsessed with technology.

## “Technological Independence” – A Small Dream

People talk about big data, cloud computing, and e-commerce.  
But have you noticed?  
E-commerce isn’t really *ours* anymore.

*“War or e-commerce”* — is there really a difference now?

I once heard that at Big Tech, developers aren’t allowed to use frameworks.  
I don’t know why — but I like that idea.  
Even more, I’d love to meet others building small, handcrafted components in **Vanilla JS**.

But who would pay you for a JavaScript file you spent a whole month writing?

I once spent an entire afternoon creating a single loading SVG.  
When someone asked, *“You spent all afternoon on that?”*  
I just smiled.

I’m not as talented as people think.  
I’m just someone learning as he goes — someone holding on to his own small dream.

Tomorrow there will be new algorithms.  
But today — today is beautiful. 😁

## My Life as a Golang Indie Hacker

**My slogan:**

> “An independent Golang developer with a dream of technological independence.”

At 30 — half a lifetime, by my grandparents’ measure —  
I’ve made mistakes, learned lessons, and yet still carry the same foolish dream.

If destiny is written at birth,  
then maybe I share a thread with Steve Jobs —  
because when he turned 40, I was born.

I have two teachers I’ve never met:

> “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  
> — *Leonardo da Vinci*
> 
> “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”  
> — *Steve Jobs*

In the end, we’re all the same — just humans trying to find our purpose, our happiness, our mission.

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### NOTES

- Article originally posted in **2024** and reposted.
- AI-powered translation.
- Read the original Vietnamese version here: [https://hnq.vn/blog/30-tuoi-code-va-cuoc-doi](https://huynhnhanquoc.com/blog/30-tuoi-code-va-cuoc-doi)

* * *

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