Huy Pham··
My personal coaching service
You lie in one spot. No dreams, no ambition. You know you're going to die soon. I was exactly there, and I climbed out within a year. Ten sessions, about $4,000. Finish the first one and hate it, I refund you.
I look for quality conversationsin this world where it is increasingly hard to know what is true and what is fabricated
Huy Pham··I've read only ebooks for 15 years. This is my whole setup
If you still read paper books, you're in one of two camps. One I respect, one I pity.
Huy Pham··I'm not religious. You should still read the Hebrew Bible
Read it the way you'd learn the local dialect before moving somewhere. It opens up Western idioms, allusions, and the shapes of plenty of classics you've read.
Huy Pham··How to sell anything with a story, and where it turns into a lie
A wizard sells a pen. Or a product, an idea, a belief. The trick is that he rarely sells it directly. He echoes a greater wisdom and shows how it changed someone just like you. Steve Jobs worked this way. So did Elizabeth Holmes. One built the future he promised, the other sold a future that didn't exist.
Huy Pham··Your self-improvement journey needs a hard mode
We all know the burning ambition. Launch the project, ace the exam, build the dream body. Then procrastination, distraction, and no follow-through. Apps, books, goals, and the momentum still fades. Today I'm launching PushThroo, a system that turns every setback into fuel.
Huy Pham··I proposed during a live improv show. Her mom was hiding in the audience
We volunteered as a couple, and the comedians acted out our first date. Right in the middle of the act, I took over and proposed. She said yes, then saw her mom, who had secretly flown in from another city.
Huy Pham··Why you still suffer when you already know what to do
You know the cause. You know the steps. And it still hurts, almost impossible to shake. I think the feeling is only pretending to be about your problem. The method I use to let it out, I call dry squirming.
Huy Pham··Never miss a loved one's lunar date again
If your family's memorial dates live on the lunar calendar, you've missed one. This is how I automate lunar anniversaries and holidays, and sync them to everyone (even the elders)
Huy Pham··My 2025 resolution: share everything I know before I die
If AI goes rogue next year, at least I contributed something. If it doesn't, I'm turning 30, I fly a lot, and who knows when my Jeju Air moment comes. Either way, everything I've written goes online.
Huy Pham··I made my friends seasick before I learned to read the sea
The captain gave me the wheel of a catamaran in rough water. Hit each wave at 45 degrees, turn into it just before impact, then back out. I got it wrong and heard the screams from the cabin below. By the end, me and the boat were one.
Huy Pham··11,000 meters above sea level
Night. Over 11,000 meters above sea level. I was on a flight from Bangkok to Vienna, Austria. Something caught my eye outside the window.
Huy Pham··confession of a narcissist
I love pointing out when people make excuses. Then a friend said I make a lot of them. So I asked ChatGPT whether I'm a narcissist. It said yes. I'd suspected it for years, and I still didn't want to hear it.
Huy Pham··An antidote to mind-numbing content: the humble essay
Tight reasoning. Clear evidence. No "people say," no "most sources indicate." I hated essays in university, then ChatGPT arrived and I thought they were history. Now I'm learning to write essays again and facing the 16-year-old who hated them.
Huy Pham··not knowing
11pm. A terrible sense of not knowing, and suddenly I'm the college me again, curled up in the dark. Instead of avoiding it, I went after the wound. How I handle pain now, and why our leaders are only better-educated guessers.
Huy Pham··A handcrafted blog in the age of AI
I sometimes find myself hating AI-generated content. It feels like a waste of time: the writer of this piece is trying to fool me into doing something, so much that they employ the biggest companies on earth to help them.
Huy Pham··How a filmmaker ended up founding an edtech company
I loved film, didn't fit the industry, and gave up. Then a gap year, a stack of flyers, and one networking event turned the story around. My WARO interview on the long way here.
- Huy Pham··
Should I Build This? A Modern Survival Guide
I'm still young and probably stupid, but I think I have something to offer. All the knowledge you accumulate means nothing if you die or give up. So, a survival guide. Minimal assumptions, actual explanation, tactics tested over six years.
- Huy Pham··
2020-07-29
Tôi thấy bà tôi ngồi sụp trước cửa nhà tang lễ bệnh viện 354. Tôi đoán, bà cũng vừa nghe tin ông mất.
Huy Pham··Toronto, 7:30 AM. Every phone in the room rang at once
I went back to sleep. A million other phones across the area were ringing too, and I found out why the next morning.
Huy Pham··10 Years: A Look Back
It feels just like yesterday.
Huy Pham··Someone asked what I do in my free time. I couldn't answer
It sounds like a simple question, and it isn't. If I'm only free when I'm not doing what I normally do, then I'm not free doing it, or I'm doing something that means nothing to me. Since I found my one purpose, free time just disappeared.
Huy Pham··I just ran 18.17km (11.3 miles)
I sit in front of a computer 12 hours a day and trained for none of this. I wanted to quit, I never felt the runner's high. One thing carried me: Repressing the petty inner voice begging me to stop.
Huy Pham··2015: I was begging for an internship. 2019: I was the one hiring
Same career fair, four years apart. In between, my GPA fell from 3.5 to 2.3 and I gave up. Then I came back. From the other side of the table I learned that no one checks your GPA when you're the employer. Getting there takes some very unrealistic dreams.
Huy Pham··How Ditching the Social News Feed Led to My Most Productive Year
In 2017 I made one rule. I could read my own posts, notifications, and messages, but never the News Feed. 2018 became the most productive year of my life. The feed is a slot machine. You don't have to quit Facebook to stop pulling the lever.
- Huy Pham··
Near death experience
For a moment today, I thought I was going to die.
Huy Pham··"Let's be realistic"
is probably the most destructive thing that ever happened to my life.
Huy Pham··TRUTH & LIES
ALL MY LIFE I LIVED IN FEAR
Huy Pham··Graduation
Around this time 2 years ago, I was wondering if I can even graduate.