8 Protocols (Page 7)

Welcome to 8 Protocols

I’m Alvis Ng, a technical lead based in Malaysia.

I write about the systems that shape how we build—from software architecture and AI to product strategy, team culture, and the human mind behind the code.

At 8 Protocols, I share principles, stories, and experiments that keep work sharp and human. Sometimes that means untangling a stubborn frontend structure. Sometimes it’s questioning a “best practice” that everyone treats as gospel. Sometimes it’s about faith, psychology, and the quiet forces that shape why we work the way we do.

I write to keep asking better questions: about craft, about meaning, and about how we balance precision with purpose.

I share these notes and stories at least three times a month. Long enough to stay with you. Short enough for a cup of coffee.

Prompt Engineering and the Illusion of Instruction

We think we’re giving orders. We’re steering a next-token engine. Prompts work when they mirror patterns the model has seen. Tiny phrasing changes flip outcomes. Guide with short roles, small examples, and simple formats. Verify. Cooperation, not command.

What Makes a Senior Developer Senior?

Seniority isn’t a title. It’s how you work when it counts: choose the boring tool when it wins, ship with guardrails, teach without theater, cut complexity, and own outcomes after merge. Tradeoffs over tricks. Clarity over clever. Spotlight traded for team lift.

Sorting Words, Clustering Thoughts

We sort words without thinking. Machines can't. They learn to draw boundaries and find themes: spam or not, tickets by topic. Use labels when you need decisions and clusters when you need discovery. Start there. Patterns come first, meaning follows.

Inside the Clockwork of an AI’s Mind

Ask a question, get a fluent answer. Under the hood, no insight, just a fast loop picking the next token, guided by attention and a tiny memory. See the gears, not a ghost. When you learn the strings, you know when to trust it and when to steer.

Chopping Language, Weaving Meaning

Language models don’t read like we do. They slice text into tokens and map them to vectors. Meaning becomes pattern, not understanding. Learn the quirks of tokenization and embeddings to write tighter prompts, spot bias, and know what gets lost.

The Erosion of Virtue

Speed is prized; thoughtfulness gets labeled “overthinking.” But 深思熟虑, think deeply and act with care, is not delay. It is judgment. Pause for choices that matter. Ask who benefits from the rush. Measure twice, cut once. Finish better, regret less.

From Bag-of-Words to GPT

We moved from counting words to modeling meaning. LLMs write, code, and summarize, but they also hallucinate and echo bias. Use them as partners, not oracles. Keep your hand on the wheel. In a world where language is cheap, make your thinking rare.

The Algorithmic Throne and the Cacophony of Democracy

How our faith in perfect algorithms threatens real self-correction, and why democracy survives by making room for noise.

Nov 07

Asynchronous Operations and Error Handling in TypeScript

TypeScript strengthens async programming by making inputs, outputs, and errors explicit. From generics with discriminated unions to custom error classes and structured results, you can create predictable, maintainable async flows that work seamlessly in complex team projects

Nov 7, 2023

7 min read

Oct 30

TypeScript Pattern 101: Basic Types and Interfaces

Dive deeper than string and number and unveil the power of TypeScript’s type system through custom types, generics, and type manipulation. This is where the richness of TypeScript’s type system truly shines, opening doors to more robust and self-explanatory code.

Oct 30, 2023

3 min read

Oct 27

TypeScript Pattern 101: Type Guards

Type guards in TypeScript function as safety checks. They help ensure you’re dealing with the exact type you expect, making them invaluable for dealing with complex data structures or various types.

Oct 27, 2023

2 min read

Aug 04

Understanding Immutability in JavaScript

Immutability in JavaScript means data stays unchanged after creation. It improves predictability, debugging, and performance, and helps avoid tricky state bugs. With tools like React, Redux Toolkit, and TypeScript’s readonly features, it becomes easier to write safer, more maintainable code.

Aug 4, 2023

10 min read

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Welcome to 8 Protocols

Featured stories · Code, culture, clarity