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Huỳnh Nhân Quốc
Huỳnh Nhân Quốc

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The Dream of a Fool

#developer #go #dreamy #technologicalindependence

Four Years Ago, I Returned

In 2020, I went back to Tam Kỳ.

I was chasing a dream after our startup fell apart.

I didn’t know how to explain what happened — not to anyone, not even to myself. I didn’t know where to start, or how to continue.

Ten years earlier, after finishing military service, I discovered technology. I began fumbling my way through HTML and CSS until I finally got into university and started learning programming properly.

Back then, I dreamed of creating a platform — or a tool — that was easier for people like me to use.

Before 2020, I was obsessed with front-end development.

Angular was my world. Nothing could compare.

But after 2020, I started learning more about Golang and Vanilla JS.

I stopped using heavy JS frameworks. I can’t explain exactly why, but I simply knew what I needed — and what I wanted to build.

I learned about JAMstack and wanted to create something different.

Security, for me, wasn’t just about the client side anymore. It had to start from the server.

My learning path became more than just programming or security.

It was about finishing a product and turning it into a service.

Others could build a website in a few hours or days.

It took me two years just to reach a basic form.

Six months of that went into building a single DNS module.

I never really explained to others what it was, but any developer would understand.

For years, I didn’t know exactly what I was building — only that it was a website system designed for myself.

Someone once asked me, “How will it make money?”

I could only answer with two ideas:

  1. Build websites for clients.
  2. Add Google AdSense. That was it.

Things Don’t Always Go as Planned

I spent more than a year building that website.

I rebuilt its architecture countless times.

There were months when I stayed awake night after night, restructuring everything just to make it simpler for myself.

Then Samdy.vn was born.

I gave everything I had to finish it.

For a brief time, it worked.

Samdy even made it into the list of top e-commerce websites in Vietnam.

But everything that comes fast… goes fast.

Overconfident, I ran the entire platform on a single VPS with 1 CPU core and 1GB RAM.

Of course, the server crashed.

I bought a new server, rebuilt the system — but it was already too late.

Failure is a Lesson

After that failure, I learned how to deploy websites automatically.

I started designing systems with more structure, more discipline.

I began experimenting with new models like affiliate marketing and more.

In 2022, I thought about giving up.

Maybe I should get a job.

But even then, I kept nurturing my platform — slowly, stubbornly.

I couldn’t really explain to others what I was doing.

I didn’t know NGINX, Apache, or half the technologies people talked about.

I didn’t even use React or Angular anymore.

Instead, I wrote my own JavaScript components.

I spent months studying frameworks, Web Components, and other ideas.

In the end, I realized something simple:

“Pure things last longer.”
So I learned Vanilla JS.

I started building small custom elements, wrapping them into my own components, and using them across my platform.

Why I Did It

Because I needed something new — something I call Dynamic Stack.

It’s a concept built on SSR rendering, where each node and component has its own role, updating only when necessary.

It’s still primitive — even rougher than AngularJS 1.0 — but it does exactly what I need: synchronize and reuse across my system.

Between Earning and Dreaming

Every developer I know seems to have moved forward — funding rounds, IPOs, startup stories.

Meanwhile, I’m still struggling between making a living and chasing a dream.

I’ve achieved small things here and there, but there’s still so much to learn.

And even now, I can’t really explain to people what it is that I do.

Lately though, my mindset has changed.

It’s wider. Clearer.

Back when I worked with my startup team, my friend often talked about MVPs — Minimum Viable Products.

I never understood it back then.

I told him,

“A product can fail, but a platform rarely fails.”
Now I realize I was wrong.

Because if you never publish that platform, then it’s already failed.

The path I chose is long, complex, and difficult to explain.

But now that I’ve learned about SaaS and Build in Public, I see that this — this is the path I should have been on.

I started renting out my first websites without even realizing that what I was offering was already a service.

SaaS Modules

When I learned Angular, I heard the term Headless API many times but never understood it.

It wasn’t well explained or practically applied.

To me, it simply meant:

“An API for rent.”
If Firebase is a backend service you pay for,

then my vision is similar — offering preconfigured APIs and models that developers can rent and plug into their systems.

Maybe I’m too ambitious for building so many things on one platform,

but that’s how it began.

And I still haven’t forgotten the original goal:

One Account for All Services.

The Dream of a Fool

I once dreamed of building a Vietnamese social network.

It failed.

But I still want to create a platform — for Vietnamese developers, or at least for myself.

Maybe that’s naive.

But this fool keeps doing foolish things.

Four years ago, I had nothing.

Now, at least, I have a mindset — even if it’s a foolish one.

Lately, I’ve been building something I call SSO — just a simple module,

but it’s taught me a lot.

Sometimes, I even chat with AI bots about my ideas, asking them to show me code snippets or new ways of thinking.

It’s strange — I now feel like I live between two languages: the human one, and the machine one.

I sometimes laugh at myself — confident, yet still struggling.

But finishing a module I built from scratch still makes me happy,

even if it’s just for a moment.

What Comes Next

I don’t know what to call my next dream.

Should I seek funding?

But how do I value something like this?

Or should I try crowdfunding?

Would people call me a scammer for that?

For now, I just want to finish my modules and rent them out — small steps to keep funding this dream.

Some people dislike me because I dropped out — because I “quit.”

But sometimes, life teaches you lessons only when you experience them yourself.

Lately, I’ve been both blaming and forgiving myself — and smiling through it.

I’m still just a fool in love with code.

Coding and life.

No Money, No Everything

Without money, nothing moves.

No one will help you — not even yourself.

I used to expect more from life.

Now I have nothing but debts.

Debts in money, love, and life itself.

So, if one day I get a big project, what would I do?

I keep asking myself this question.

Because in this world, when you have no money, you have nothing.

I could hire a team, build faster — but how do you manage people when you’ve trapped yourself in your own thoughts and your own code?

Sometimes, I talk with chatbots just to explain my own ideas to myself.

If I apply for a big company, they might think I’m arrogant.

If I take a small job, I’d be throwing away the years I’ve already spent.

Right now, I feel like a spear —

or maybe like my favorite language, Go —

just moving forward.

People often think all I want is money.

But if that were true, I wouldn’t still be here — still coding, still dreaming, still trying to escape this circle.

Sometimes I look at my own hands —

aging, tired, yet still dreaming of ambition, wealth, or beauty.

Now, I just want to live like a melody.

A song called “The Life of Passion.”

Even through pain, I still wish and still dream.

This lullaby continues, and I’ll keep writing it — for tomorrow.

NOTES

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