Understanding Tech Lingo: A Survival Guide for Normal Humans
At some point, tech stopped being a tool and became a dialect.
You didn’t miss a memo, one day people were just casually saying things like:
“We’ll ship it after the deploy.”
“It’s probably a race condition.”
“The API is flaky.”
“We need to refactor before it scales.”
And everyone nodded.
Even though nobody really explained anything.
This article is for the brave souls who have ever left a tech conversation thinking:
“I understand the words individually… but not together.”
Let’s translate.
First, Why Does Tech Sound Like This?
Tech lingo exists for two reasons:
Speed – saying “deploy” is faster than saying “move this code from a developer’s laptop to the server where real humans can use it.”
Trauma bonding – shared suffering creates shared vocabulary.
Unfortunately, this means outsiders feel like they walked into a Christopher Nolan movie halfway through.
So let’s break it down. No gatekeeping. No superiority. Just clarity.
“Stack”
What it sounds like: Something tall and complicated
What it actually means: All the tools used to build an app
If someone says:
“Our stack is React, Node, Postgres, AWS”
They’re basically saying:
“Here’s what we used to build this thing.”
Think of it like a restaurant saying:
We cook with gas
We use stainless steel pans
We source tomatoes locally
It’s not mystical. It’s just ingredients.
“Frontend” vs “Backend”
This one causes unnecessary fear.
Frontend = what users see and touch
Buttons, text, colors, animations. The face of the app.Backend = what users don’t see
Logic, databases, authentication, calculations. The brain and organs.
Frontend is the waiter.
Backend is the kitchen.
If food is late, they’ll argue about who caused it.
“API”
Ah yes. The word that ends conversations.
API is just a messenger.
It’s how one system politely asks another system for information.
Example:
Your app wants to know your bank balance
It sends a request
The bank replies (or times out, because character development)
That’s an API.
Not magic. Just structured asking and answering.
“Deploy”
This one sounds aggressive.
Deploy simply means:
“Make the new version live.”
That’s it.
When someone says:
“We deployed a fix”
They mean:
“The bug is gone… hopefully.”
“Bug”
Contrary to popular belief, it is not:
A mosquito
A conspiracy
A personal attack
At least, not in this case.
A bug is just:
“The software didn’t behave the way we expected.”
Sometimes because of:
A typo
A wrong assumption
A developer trusting past version of themselves
Or other mistakes in development
“Scalable”
This one gets abused.
When tech people say:
“Is it scalable?”
They’re asking:
“Will this break when more people start using it?”
Scalability is future-proofing against success.
“Refactor”
This is developer therapy.
Refactoring means:
“Changing how the code is written without changing what it does.”
Same behavior. Cleaner structure. Less shame.
Think of it as reorganizing your room without buying new furniture.
“MVP”
Minimum Viable Product.
Which should mean:
“The simplest version that solves the core problem.”
But often means:
“Let’s ship something half-done and pray.”
Context matters.
“Tech Debt”
This one is real debt.
Tech debt is what happens when:
You take shortcuts
You rush features
You say “we’ll fix it later”
Later always arrives with interest.
Why This Language Matters
Tech lingo isn’t meant to exclude, but it often does.
And when people don’t understand what’s being said:
Bad decisions get approved
Expectations get misaligned
Everyone nods… then panics later
Understanding the language gives you power.
Not to code, but to participate.
Final Translation
Tech isn’t magic.
It’s people.
With tools.
And deadlines.
And coffee dependencies.
Once you decode the language, you realize:
Most tech conversations are just humans trying to explain systems under pressure.
And sometimes failing… beautifully.