ลูกค้าเป็น dev หรอครับ

I randomly decided to wander around บางซื่อ. No plan, no destination — that is usually the point.

Under a bridge there was a coffee truck. The vibe was so nice and chill that I stopped, and while waiting for a bus I took my laptop out and worked for a bit.

The owner saw the code on my screen and asked:

"ลูกค้าเป็น dev หรอครับ"

Turns out he used to be a developer. Now he is retired and runs this coffee truck. We talked for a while — technical stuff, places worth travelling to, what he plans to do next. Completely random, and one of the nicer conversations I have had in months.

Before I left he told me to come back and bring my friends.

Sitting under a bridge, listening to jazz, hanging out with friends. That sounds so good.

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The same thing happened again at a coffee shop called House of Supha, which stocks beans from what feels like everywhere on earth. The owner travels the world collecting them. A regular customer had brought beans back from Japan as a gift. And there was an American in the corner deep in conversation with the owner — Harvard graduate, used to work at Tesla, retired around 40, and is now opening a coffee shop in Myanmar.

The topics flying around that room: coffee, politics, career paths, the gaming industry, music, travel. Mostly in English. Complete strangers, all of them connected by coffee.

I keep noticing this pattern and I think it is the actual reason I wander. The plan is never the point. The plan just puts me in a room where someone I would never have met has a reason to talk to me. A coffee truck under a bridge is a better social protocol than any app I have tried.

The other thing I noticed: both of these people built the thing they wanted to spend their time inside of. The owner didn't open a cafe to sell coffee. He opened it because he wanted to talk to people, and a cafe is a machine that makes people talk to you.

I should start talking to more people while wandering.