The Beginner Developer Stack
Seven subjects in learning order — each one builds on the last. Follow the numbers, or jump to what hurts today.
Python in 10 Minutes
The crash course with the real error messages you'll actually hit — and permission to skip classes for now.
02 🌱Git in 10 Minutes
Three trees, branches as sticky notes, and how to undo anything — with the real errors (detached HEAD, non-fast-forward) decoded.
03 ⌨️The Command Line in 10 Minutes
Pipes, grep, PATH, permissions — why "command not found" happens after installing, and why rm has no trash can.
04 🗄️SQL in 10 Minutes
The JOIN mental model that finally clicks, the NULL trap with no error message, and the UPDATE-without-WHERE horror story.
05 🌐HTTP & APIs in 10 Minutes
Two computers passing notes: methods, status codes (401 vs 403, settled), REST without the theology, and the truth about CORS.
06 🐳Docker in 10 Minutes
Images vs containers, why layer order makes builds 100× faster, and where your data actually goes when a container dies.
07 🔍Regex in 10 Minutes
Five concepts wearing dense syntax: the greedy trap, the escaping bug, a copy-paste pattern library — and when to decline regex entirely.
+ 🤖AI Words, Explained
Token, prompt, RAG, agent, MCP — one plain-English definition, one real example, and the misconception to unlearn, for each.
Developer Skills Beyond the Basics
The systems and failure modes that separate writing code from shipping it reliably.
Debugging in 10 Minutes
Stop guessing. Reproduce the bug, cut the search space, read the last useful line, and prove the fix.
🔑SSH in 10 Minutes
Keys, agents, host fingerprints, tunnels, and the permission mistake behind most failed logins.
📡DNS in 10 Minutes
Trace the lookup chain, choose records deliberately, and stop blaming propagation for every bad config.
🎟️OAuth in 10 Minutes
Authorization codes, PKCE, scopes, refresh tokens, and why OAuth is not authentication by itself.
🪝Webhooks in 10 Minutes
Signatures, retries, idempotency, ordering, and the rule: acknowledge fast, process later.
⚙️Config Files in 10 Minutes
JSON, YAML, TOML, environment variables, precedence, and why secrets never belong in the file.
↔️JavaScript for Python Developers
Learn the semantic differences that cause bugs; skip the generic beginner tour you do not need.
{ }JSON in 10 Minutes
Strict syntax, schemas, JSONL, date and big-integer traps, and the parser errors that tell you exactly what broke.
🔒TLS & HTTPS in 10 Minutes
Handshakes, certificate chains, SNI, ACME, renewal, and why disabling verification is never the fix.
🧪Software Testing in 10 Minutes
Test risky boundaries, control time and async work, kill flaky tests, and stop worshipping coverage percentages.
🚦CI/CD in 10 Minutes
Fast feedback, reproducible builds, immutable artifacts, safe migrations, canaries, and rollback that actually works.
🕵️Browser DevTools in 10 Minutes
Use Elements, Network, Sources, storage, and performance traces as evidence before adding another console log.
✉️Email Deliverability in 10 Minutes
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, alignment, reputation, bounces, and the exact order for debugging rejected mail.
🔤Unicode Without the Folklore
UTF-8, mojibake, BOMs, normalization, grapheme clusters, and the byte-level evidence behind broken text.
🕰️Time Zones in 10 Minutes
Instants, local times, offsets, IANA zones, DST gaps and folds, and storage rules that survive the next clock change.
🔌TCP/IP in 10 Minutes
Packets, ports, handshakes, NAT, firewalls, and a layer-by-layer workflow for refused connections and timeouts.
⚡Caching Explained
Cache keys, TTLs, invalidation, stampedes, HTTP caching, Redis, and why stale data must be a deliberate product choice.
📈Observability Explained
Connect logs, metrics, and traces to user impact, then debug incidents without drowning in dashboards.
♿Web Accessibility Basics
Keyboard paths, screen readers, semantic HTML, focus, forms, contrast, WCAG, and the limits of automated audits.
☁️Cloud Computing Explained
Regions, zones, VMs, containers, serverless, storage, networking, IAM, costs, and tested recovery boundaries.
Work & Life
The skills nobody's degree covered — frameworks that work the week you learn them.
How to Learn Anything Faster
Active recall, spaced repetition, Feynman, deliberate practice — why the methods that feel productive aren't, and what to do instead.
💼Workplace Skills in 10 Minutes
Pyramid Principle, SMART, STAR, SBI, managing up, saying no — the frameworks people learn in ten years, in ten minutes.
😏How to Be Funny in 10 Minutes
Comedy is mechanics, not genes: surprise, the rule of three, callbacks, timing — and the four ways people kill their own jokes.
🧮Chinese Mental Math
Why Chinese schoolkids out-calculate most adults: the 45-fact chant, make-ten, and the tricks built on top.
💰Money Basics in 10 Minutes
Compound interest (both directions), the 50/30/20 budget, what "index fund" means, and the universal scam checklist. Education, not advice.
🤝Negotiation in 10 Minutes
BATNA, anchoring, ZOPA, tactical silence — and the salary script, with the two mistakes that cost five figures.
📊Numbers That Lie
Average vs median, base rates, survivorship bias, chart crimes — eight statistical traps, each defused by one question.
🎤Public Speaking in 10 Minutes
Stage fright decoded, the one-message rule, cold opens, the pause that replaces "um" — and surviving Q&A.
🧾Spreadsheets in 10 Minutes
References, lookups, pivots, and error-proof formulas. If a sheet needs manual cleanup, the design is wrong.
🛡️Cybersecurity in 10 Minutes
Threat models, passkeys, phishing, updates, backups, and the boring baseline that prevents most disasters.
⚖️Decision-Making in 10 Minutes
Separate reversible bets from permanent choices, use base rates, and set stop rules before emotion takes over.
✍️Clear Writing for Work
Lead with the conclusion, replace corporate fog with concrete facts, and make the reader's next action obvious.
🪑Effective Meetings
No agenda, no attendance. Use explicit decisions, pre-reads, timeboxes, and action notes that name one owner.
🎯Job Interview Preparation
Stop memorizing answers. Build evidence, handle technical uncertainty, ask useful questions, and debrief honestly.
🧭Project Management
Make outcomes, dependencies, risks, decisions, and bad news visible. A Gantt chart cannot replace responsibility.
🔎How to Research Online
Write answerable questions, trace claims to primary sources, preserve evidence, and treat AI citations as unverified leads.
🧩Critical Thinking
Separate facts from inferences, expose premises, test causation, use base rates, and update confidence without team sports.
⏱️Time Management for Real Work
Capture obligations, choose next actions, limit work in progress, budget uncertainty, and make interruptions visible.
🗣️Difficult Conversations at Work
Open with observable facts, listen without surrendering the issue, set enforceable boundaries, and document when safety demands it.
🫱How to Delegate Work
Transfer outcomes and real authority, define done, place checkpoints around uncertainty, and stop work from boomeranging back.
📄Resume Writing
Replace vague claims with defensible evidence, write stronger bullets, tailor honestly, and use a plain format that survives parsing.
🍳Cooking Fundamentals
Control heat, salt, acid, fat, and water; then repair grey mushrooms, bitter garlic, broken sauces, and oversalted dinner.
📷Photography Basics
Exposure, focus, focal length, light, composition, RAW versus JPEG, and a disciplined way to diagnose failed photographs.
🥘Food Safety Basics
Control contamination, time, temperature, storage, thawing, allergens, outages, and leftovers without trusting smell or guesswork.
💡Electricity Basics
Volts, amps, watts, resistance, circuits, breakers, grounding, and safe nameplate calculations without dangerous live work.
🌦️How to Read a Weather Forecast
Rain probability, radar, ensembles, wind, dew point, alerts, microclimates, and why a forecast can miss your street.
📋Insurance Basics
Risk pooling, premiums, deductibles, limits, exclusions, claims, denials, appeals, and the evidence a contract demands.
📉Economics Basics
Incentives, supply, elasticity, inflation, rates, unemployment, productivity, externalities, trade, and honest data reading.
Just for Your Ears
Experiments in what a "listenable page" can be.