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My name is Maksim Zhirnov. I’m a Growth Marketing Expert & MarTech Engineer. I help tech companies scale through data-driven marketing strategies, powered by my engineering background. I love building marketing systems that drive growth and sharing insights on the intersection of technology and customer acquisition.
Vendor Lock-In Is Inevitable: Why Cloud Agnosticism Is a Fantasy

Vendor Lock-In Is Inevitable: Why Cloud Agnosticism Is a Fantasy

Remember that conference talk where someone passionately presented their “cloud-agnostic architecture” that would let them switch providers in minutes? Yeah, I’ve attended a few of those too. And every single time, I watch the audience nod along with the same glazed expression they’d have watching a motivational video about morning jogs. Deep down, we all know the truth: cloud agnosticism isn’t a strategy—it’s a well-intentioned fairy tale we tell ourselves at 2 AM before deployment day....

January 29, 2026 · 11 min · 2242 words · Maxim Zhirnov
A Minimalist Tool Stack for Efficient Development in 2026: Do Less, Achieve More

A Minimalist Tool Stack for Efficient Development in 2026: Do Less, Achieve More

Remember when you could fit your entire development environment on a floppy disk? Yeah, me neither. But somewhere between that golden age and today, we’ve managed to create an ecosystem so bloated that developers need tools to manage their tools to manage their tools. It’s tools all the way down. We’ve convinced ourselves that having 47 browser extensions, 12 different terminal multiplexers, 3 competing note-taking apps, and a monitoring solution that costs more than a monthly car payment somehow makes us better developers....

January 28, 2026 · 13 min · 2576 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Stop Learning New Frameworks: Master One Stack and Ignore the Rest

Stop Learning New Frameworks: Master One Stack and Ignore the Rest

The Framework Treadmill Nobody Asked For Let me paint a scenario. It’s Monday morning. You open Twitter. A shiny new JavaScript framework just dropped with 50k GitHub stars. The testimonials are glowing. “10x faster development!” “Finally, a framework that gets it!” By Tuesday, you’ve abandoned your three-year-old codebase to rewrite everything in this miracle worker. By Wednesday, you’ve realized it’s solving a problem you don’t have. Welcome to web development in 2026....

January 28, 2026 · 10 min · 2004 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Observability Stack on a Tight Budget: Where to Invest First

Observability Stack on a Tight Budget: Where to Invest First

If you’ve ever received an observability bill that made you question your life choices, you’re not alone. The funny thing about observability is that it’s the most important thing you’re probably overspending on. Let me explain: observability is non-negotiable for modern systems, but the way most teams buy it? That’s where the financial hemorrhaging begins. The core problem is straightforward: SaaS observability platforms charge per gigabyte ingested, per host monitored, or per high-cardinality metric tracked....

January 27, 2026 · 10 min · 1980 words · Maxim Zhirnov
Linting Rules as a Form of Micro-Management: Finding the Sweet Spot

Linting Rules as a Form of Micro-Management: Finding the Sweet Spot

When you first encounter a linter screaming at you about inconsistent indentation at 3 PM on a Friday, it might feel less like helpful guidance and more like your code has a very pedantic supervisor. And honestly? You’d have a point. Linting rules occupy a peculiar space in software development—somewhere between necessary discipline and overbearing control. The question isn’t whether linters are useful (they clearly are), but rather: at what point does enforcing coding standards cross the line from best practice into oppressive oversight?...

January 27, 2026 · 13 min · 2575 words · Maxim Zhirnov