The speaker presents Vietnam as one of the world's most pragmatic societies, driven by an outcome-oriented mindset that prioritizes efficiency and results over rigid processes. By blending global influences with a flexible, low-friction approach to business and daily life, Vietnam demonstrates a unique ability to adapt and leapfrog traditional development stages to achieve rapid growth.
Is Vietnam the most practical country
in the entire world in 2026?
Guys, I just landed off the plane.
I'm back from Singapore,
so I kind of just wanted to fire up this video
because I was just thinking about it.
Vietnam has some incredibly ambitious targets
for economic growth, 10% a year.
And I was thinking about it and I was like,
that's why everything here is optimized for outcome
instead of process or outcome instead of optimization.
And I love that.
And that's what they should be doing
in the situation that they're in
with the targets that they have.
And I just thought of 10 examples off the top of my head
that sort of like exemplify that
because I was just outside of the mall.
This is Vinh Con Mall in Thao Dien, by the way.
And people, there was like seven photo shoots going down.
And I'm talking about like all times of the day
because it kind of like looks like New York,
Philly, Boston, you know,
like type subway thing going on out there.
And there's like McDonald's and there's Starbucks.
So like everybody loves doing the photo shoots around there.
And it's like free and you don't have to pay
for a K-studio.
Like Korea, they have these like K-studios
that kind of look like this Americana K-pop look.
You don't got to do the C-studio in China.
Like they're always doing some like fantastic
like Song Han dynasty type of Wu Sha Pian look,
which is very Chinese Dou Ying.
And it's like, it's just do it now, just get her done.
You know, I love that.
Point number two, people just say the quiet part out loud.
And I think if you think about like East Asian culture,
a lot of people think it's like really quiet,
really demure, really like people don't say
what they mean a lot of times,
because it's just like depending on hierarchy
and status and all these different things.
And like, even if people are okay to say things,
sometimes they don't say things just because like,
that's just how introverted and autistic
like East Asian cultures can be.
They still have that a little bit in Vietnam for sure,
because it's still like part of the ancient Sinosphere
to be honest, the Confucianosphere.
But they just got less of it,
because I think they have a lot more French influence.
They got a lot more Southeast Asian influence
from its neighbors, from the hot weather.
So it's like, you can kind of just say things.
And it's like, you know, if you're really into like
Tokyo style where everybody's like super coded,
maybe you don't like it.
But I'm saying I like it.
Like I have some girls tell me in Vietnam,
they're like, why your brother more handsome than you?
I was just laughed.
I was just like, yeah.
I mean, thank you for letting me know.
That's all good, because you know, I appreciate it.
Because at the end of the day, listen guys,
people think things in their head, but nobody says them.
But I just think the Viets, they just got to say it.
You know, I mean, at least more than average, right?
Obviously, like I said, they still hold their tongue,
just less.
Point number three, the scooter explains everything.
We're talking about like directness, right?
If you think about the most direct vehicle
to get from A to B or transport something
from A to B, it's really the scooter,
the combustion scooter, the electric scooter,
you know, 2030 high noise banning all combustion scooters.
But like, I'm talking about, it's easy to repair.
$5 a gas gets you super far.
Like it just never breaks down.
Vietnam has the most scooters per capita
of anywhere on planet earth.
Taiwan's number two, but I think the unregistered number
like pushes it to number one for Vietnam.
And I'm telling you, you can get anything done on a scooter.
I've seen people with like carry-on luggage.
I've seen people with check-in luggage on a scooter.
I'm actually excited for the future of scooter tech.
You know what I mean?
And it's interesting, also in Vietnam,
because of the French influence,
they really like Vespa, like Lambretta looking scooters.
In China, they got a lot of scooters too,
but they kind of go for this like year 2030, 30, 50 look.
You know what I mean?
That's just like the difference
in like even the way they make VinFast.
VinFast looks very Italian.
Chinese cars tend to look like very,
almost like a Akira, like, you know what I mean?
But it goes to show you,
that's the difference in design aesthetic, right?
Point number four, Vietnam doesn't wait for perfect systems.
So I remember that when I was like first coming to Vietnam,
I had to carry a bunch of cash with me.
And it just felt so crazy
because like the place where we would exchange the cash
in Ben Thanh Market,
it just felt like we were just doing like a,
almost like a drug deal or something like that.
You know what I mean?
Like you got a lot of cash in an envelope
and you're exchanging at this place
with like all this gold in the window
with all these changing spot rates or whatever.
But you know, now, even just two years later,
everybody's on QR code.
I can buy durian off the street from a old person
who cut the durian open fresh in front of me
and pay with QR code.
If I was in America,
I couldn't buy Chamangos off the freeway
with QR code.
I would need cash, right?
Because here they got the VNID
and the VNID means that you got a bank account
connected to a QR code.
So even like, if you,
anybody who tells you get a bunch of USD
and come to Vietnam,
that was two years ago.
Like for the past year, they've been on via QR.
And you could get Meredipay,
you could be on Apple Pay.
I mean, obviously Apple Pay just replaces your credit card,
but I just think that nobody waited for the perfect system.
They didn't even, they kind of skipped credit cards,
sort of like they skipped like desktop computers
and then maybe went straight to laptop and mobile.
That's like a lot of emerging economies.
And I just think that people just started using
what works, man.
And this kind of leads me to my point number five.
Vietnam just borrows what works from everybody.
And they're not dogmatic about it
because it's all good.
You know, like Vietnam,
historically, it's very geographically mixed.
It's very ethnically mixed.
It's very culturally mixed.
It's just a very, very mixed place.
And I think that they are just like cool with it.
Like they used to use Chinese to write their language,
you know, Chu Nam, Chu Han.
You know what I mean?
Now they use, the French came and you know,
I think a Portuguese guy helped them
do the Roman alphabet or the Latin alphabet.
And they just switched to that too.
You know what I mean?
And it's just like, they got Cao Dai.
Cao Dai is a really dope, like universalist religion
with like, they're basically saying all religions are good.
You know what I mean?
Like, how do you guys, pop up Cao Dai right there.
I gotta do something at the Cao Dai temple,
but it's just like, they're just switching,
you know, business models, technology,
payment ideas, design ideas, borrow what works,
keep what helps, stay Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese language is the glue,
you know what I mean?
Like it's gonna always have like a glue to it
and people are always gonna have that identity,
but they're just borrowing things
that just work from other places.
And they're not as dogmatic about it.
You know what I mean?
Like sometimes East Asians, they're so caught up
in who created what,
and like what ancient civilization was there before,
what nation state, they're just so like,
they're like, some of the people would die for it.
You know what I mean?
And it's just like, man,
sometimes you gotta just take what works too.
You know what I mean?
Like, you don't want the French to colonize anymore,
but you take the baguettes and the Bun Mies, you know?
Point number six, Vietnam is secretly a pork country.
Now, what do pork, directness, scooters all have in common?
Because pork is like the scooter of meats.
If you think about it, you can feed a pig anything
and it will become big and tasty.
And if you really study human civilizational theory,
it is one of the most important things to development.
And Vietnam eats the most pork
out of anywhere in Southeast Asia.
Now, I understand some other places,
for a variety of reasons,
they may have some religious restrictions
against it or whatever.
I'm not saying pigs are like the cleanest, right?
Because they roll around in the mud,
they'll eat trash or whatever.
But I'm saying it's so efficient like a scooter.
If you're on a scooter, it's not the cleanest either.
You're subject to all the methane fumes
and all the dirt from the ground.
You're not in a shell, you're not in an exoskeleton.
A pig ain't the cleanest,
but I'm saying in terms of stabilizing a civilization
like an impoverished civilization's food source,
it's super important.
If you look at the places they eat the most pork,
I believe it is Western Europe and East Asia.
Point number seven, the Vietnamese cafes.
I think the Vietnamese cafes are so practical
because people kind of use them like a Swiss army knife
for a lot of different things.
Date, cafe, studying, cafe,
need to watch a drama on a tablet, cafe.
They're all about the cafe here
and the cafe can do so many different things.
And I got this crazy prediction, guys.
I think that as Vietnam's GDP per capita rises,
because really, what is it, like 4K right now?
I believe it's like 7.5 in Saigon, but 4K nationally.
If that doubles, let's say the Saigon number doubles,
the national number doubles,
why wouldn't Vietnam have the most cafes
in the world right now?
Because it's already like top 15
and the GDP's not that high on paper.
So really, once the GDP does get high,
why wouldn't it be number one if you think about it?
Yeah, and I just think there's going to be
so many different cafes for so many different things.
Like there's Cafe Lin, which is almost like a,
if you guys know who MCK is,
like this like Viet trap rapper from Hanoi,
that's like almost like a MCK hangout spot.
You know, they got Cafe Lin,
you got multiple levels of Phuc Long,
you got Every Half Roaster.
Dude, there's so much coffee in Vietnam, it's crazy.
This, let alone like the independent
like solo entrepreneur stalls,
like I just think that Vietnam is going to have
the most cafes in the world at some point.
And it's going to be sooner or later.
We got to look at the numbers
in the projected arc or whatever.
Point number eight, nobody is afraid to look stupid.
And I just think that nobody is afraid.
Like, I don't know, it's just like,
I'm not afraid to do this right now.
I could be looking stupid, you know,
doing this vlog in this mall,
but nobody's going to bother me, you know?
And, you know, like people switch careers.
I think, I know that some people don't like
people switching careers that much,
but like people switch careers quick.
They test ideas, they succeed, they fail.
And I just think that they just start, man.
And I see that in my Viet friends in America too.
Like they have, I believe in America,
Vietnamese people have one,
like a top three per ethnic group
of like starting small businesses.
I believe Vietnamese people are
on the top three in America, literally.
You got to think how many races are in America?
Like 70?
If you top three out of 70,
that means you, yeah, you're in the top five percentile.
Number nine, Saigon is a living mosaic too.
So like, I was talking about the different influences,
but it's like, you can see the different influences too,
because you can go to Chinatown
and you can see like Chinese characters everywhere.
People still speak Cantonese
after being in Vietnam for like 200 years.
Some people still speak it.
And then you can go to a French area.
People don't speak French anymore.
I don't know how many people ever really spoke French,
but some people did,
but like you still see the French buildings everywhere.
You know what I mean?
Those like tall French buildings
that remind me of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, you know?
Now you see endless Korean chains.
The biggest chain in Vietnam is actually Lotteria.
I think eventually it'll become overtaken
by a Viet Pho chain or something like that,
but they're just not at that point yet,
but I'm sure it's going to happen.
Japanese influences, every single,
in the past five years,
I guess it has switched from like Windmarks
to more like, you know,
Mini Stops or GS25s from Korea,
but they got Family Mart,
they got 7-Eleven, et cetera, et cetera.
So you got American influences, like, what is this?
You got Levi's right here.
You know what I mean?
And it just kind of feels almost like,
it's hard to describe it, man.
Vietnam almost feels like Asian America.
It almost feels literally, yeah,
like 626 or like the OC
or like, what is that?
Century Mall in San Jose or whatever.
You know, it really does, man,
because they just borrow from everybody,
but they don't lose themselves.
It's a mosaic, it's a stained glass window, man,
but it's just cohesive.
And then just point number 10, guys,
like we said, when you optimize for outcomes
instead of optimization or process,
it's just like, you don't ask like,
is this the proper way to do it?
You just ask, does this work?
Does it save time?
Does it save money?
Does it make money?
Can it solve the problem?
And can it improve life?
And if it can, then people will try it.
And that's why Vietnam just feels so adaptable.
That's why it feels so fast moving.
And that's why things often look chaotic on the surface,
like a big pool of scooters, but it just works.
And they get from point A to point B.
And the system turns, and the machinery turns,
and the inputs get carried through the algo,
through the equation, and you get outputs.
And you just can't say that for everywhere.
You know what I mean?
Like, to be honest, it's just,
after spending years around Asia,
I'm telling you guys,
Vietnam is one of the most adaptable societies
that I've ever seen, man.
They don't wait for permission.
They don't wait for perfect conditions.
They see a problem,
and they find something that works, and they move.
And that's what I mean when Vietnam
is a low-friction society.
And they work, man.
Like I said, like, you know, other places,
they're adaptable, and they're low-friction,
but I don't know if they work.
Vietnam works.
Anyway, guys, I just had those thoughts.
I just got off the plane from Singapore.
Let me know what you guys think.
Agree or disagree.
I mean, that's what I like about it.
It's very MacGyver.
It's very Jerry-rigged.
But at the same time, get her done, gets it done.
Oh, by the way, guys,
Sma La has just made it into 270 H-E-B supermarkets
in the great state of Texas.
So huge shout-out to Texas, Houston, Dallas,
Plano, Austin, of course, San Antonio, Texas.
Check out Sma La, man.
Going to be in the H-E-B's 270 stores.
Buy a bottle.
Tell me if you like it.
If you like it, tell your friends.
Until next time, I'm out.
Peace.