You've nodded in a meeting at a word you didn't know. everybody has. somebody said "we'll just make it serverless" or "that's not very cloud-native" and you nodded, because the alternative was raising your hand at 4pm and admitting it.That nod is the whole problem. half of tech vocabulary is plain ideas wearing a lab coat, kept fuzzy on purpose, because a confused room is a room that keeps paying the person who sounds certain.This is the decoder. 181 cloud, AI, FinOps and DevOps terms, translated into plain english, with the marketing peeled off. every entry is the same three lines: the truth (the real definition, accurate), zara's translation (the version that actually sticks), and spotting the bluff (what it means when someone overuses the word).A taste: the cloud is someone else's computer in a warehouse, rented by the hour. serverless is a room full of servers with a sign on the door that says no servers. a chatbot tells you how to book the flight. an agent books it, checks your calendar, and adds it to the trip. synergy is the word you reach for when you can't say the thing. if you could finish the sentence, you'd have finished the sentence. The buzzwords get a bluff rating, so you know how much of the word is real and how much is air: low (real, just overused), medium (real core, marketing wrap), high (mostly air), vapor (means nothing, retire it).Three ways to use it. look it up (you heard a word, the A-Z index gets you the real version in ten seconds). read it for fun (pick the section that matches the meeting you just survived). screenshot it (every entry is a card, built to send to the next person who says "synergy" with a straight face).it's free. take it, use it, share it. that's the whole point.What's inside- §1 the cloud & the closet it replaced (cloud, on-prem, virtualization, the primitives)- §2 the plumbing (networking, top to bottom)- §3 where the data sleeps (databases, SQL vs NoSQL, warehouses, lakes)- §4 the robot that finishes your sentences (tokens, context, hallucination, agents, the hype words)- §5 why the bill is insane (egress, reserved vs spot, the horror-novel invoice)- §6 how it ships and how it doesn't get robbed (CI/CD, zero trust, the acronym soup)- §7 the buzzword graveyard (the words that mean nothing, with a bluff rating)format: EPUB + PDF. 114 pages. 181 entries. an A-Z index for fast lookup.FAQis it really free?yes. free, or free with your email so i can tell you when there's more. no trial, no card, no catch.do i need to be technical?no. that's the entire point. if you sit near tech and want to stop nodding at words you don't know, this is for you.what do i get?an EPUB and a PDF. 181 entries across seven sections, each one term, true definition, plain-english translation, and the tell. plus an A-Z index.is it correct, or just funny?both, on purpose. the definition under every joke is accurate. a translation that bends the truth got cut.what's the catch?there isn't one. it's the widest, friendliest door into everything else i make. if you like it, the rest is one click away. if you don't, you got a free dictionary.is there a paid version?this is the cheat sheet. the field guide, Decoded by Zara ($9), is the long version, where the hard terms (embeddings, ACID, the whole CAP-theorem mess) get a full chapter with the room a dictionary can't give. start free. go deeper if you want to.Licensed, not sold. Full License & Terms apply (ref KESS-LIC-2026-001). By downloading or purchasing you agree to the version in force on your purchase date.Questions before you buy, or support after? Contact mathieu@kesslernity.com.Terms of Service · Privacy Policy