Coding in Saigon
This week is an exciting one - I'm getting SO close to finishing Fridays at Four!
This week is an exciting one - I'm getting SO close to finishing Fridays at Four! These last steps are all about getting the app accepted by the Slack marketplace, which feels like putting the final touches on a house. Pretty boring stuff on the surface - privacy policies, security checks, all the paperwork. But diving into the security side has been fascinating. All my life I've heard about hackers breaking into systems, but never really understood how it happened.
It's like water finding a crack in the pavement. With thousands of lines of code, it's amazingly easy to leave these little cracks behind. I've gained a whole new sympathy for companies that get hacked. But never fear! That's what the Slack store process is for - they're like master water proofers, coming in with their microscopes to seal up any cracks I might have missed. It's oddly comforting, knowing they're there to catch what I might have overlooked.
On a personal note, I'm currently in Da Nang, Vietnam. Was in Saigon for NYE (which, contrary to popular belief, the locals prefer to call "Saigon" and not "Ho Chi Minh City"), which was insane in a great way. So much energy in that place. There's something I've really come to love about large foreign cities, and it's the ever-present, all-consuming energy of the place. They're places where if you want to start a business, making food or selling fruit, and you have a corner to stand on, you have a business. It doesn't cost $1M to start a cafe, you just set out some plastic chairs and tables, get a hot plate, and you've got a cafe.
The result is this incredible explosion of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Everywhere you look, someone is selling something, and because there are so many people selling, prices stay low, which means everybody's buying. Every night, every street is packed with life - people young and old eating hot pot and pho, friends gathered around coffee, whole families balanced together on a motorbike coming back from dinner. There are just people everywhere, all the time, and somehow instead of feeling overwhelming, it's deeply calming. It's like I've stepped into this river of humanity, become a drop of water in an ocean of life and energy, I'm finally at peace.
I feel like the core reason I'm starting Fridays at Four is I truly believe that everyone has it in them to make something for themselves. Whether that's a business or a book, everyone has an idea. Being here really helps me see that. Give people the opportunity to start their own thing, and they'll do it. Everyone's got something they want to create - they just need the right conditions to help them grow.