David Hoang

Writer at Proof of Concept

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Articles

Career reboot

1 week ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

Every April I seem to take an unplanned creative spring break. It’s not a sabbatical or a formal PTO strategy—just a self-imposed ritual to step away from the chaos of work and reconnect with what inspires me. I’ve learned that if you’re not in a full-time IC role, making things—especially design—becomes a form of recovery from meeting fatigue and managerial overhead.
Scouting talent

2 weeks ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

The end of April marks one of my favorite times of the year. Of course, I'm talking about the NFL Draft—the annual tradition of very large men in tiny suits waiting for their names to be called and achieve their dream of becoming a professional football player in the National Football League. In 1984, a 23-year-old man named Mel Kiper Jr. changed the coverage of the draft forever.
The second archetype

3 weeks ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

Former Adobe Chief Strategy Officer and A24 partner Scott Belsky recently wrote about the talent stack collapsing. Traditional career ladders, carefully stacked layers of specialization, are flattening, especially this decade. Belsky isn't the only one seeing what's happening to crafts before our eyes. Replit CEO Amjad Masad puts it plainly: those in the murky middle between deep specialists and product-centric generalists risk getting squeezed.
Skills are the new currency

1 month ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

One of the most anticipated sequels during my younger years was The Matrix: Reloaded, the follow-up to the 1999 Keanu Reeves film that had already cemented itself as a sci-fi classic. Though visually stunning with high-octane action scenes, I felt underwhelmed by it, but this is not a movie review. One of the characters they introduced was Seraph, a pivotal protector in the world of The Matrix.
Strategy is compressing

1 month ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

“Strategy” is one of those loaded words. I often hear people say, “I want to do more strategy,” especially when talking about career growth. But what does that even mean? “Strategist” feels like one of those titles we should retire—kind of like the “Ideas Guy” before it. With technologies like AI and next-gen tooling, the pace of iteration has shifted from two-week sprints to multi-hour cycles. That changes everything. The good news?
Multi-modal and multi-generational

1 month ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

We are in a unique shift in tech right now. The world seems to be changing rapidly with AI advancements. Interactions are not a singular text conversation, but multi-modal inputs. We are amid a generational hand-off between Millennials who grew up with the internet, and Gen Z, the first digital native generation. I’m one of the first-wave Millennials—essentially a prototype with Gen X attributes. I had a Walkman and a MySpace page.
Too legit to git

1 month ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang |Carly Ayres

The term “vibe coding” has taken the internet since Andrej Kaparthy posted about it online:There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It's possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even touch the keyboard.
The Platform of Theseus

2 months ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

The Ship of Theseus Paradox questions whether an object that has had all its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. Imagine a ship where every plank, nail, and sail is gradually replaced over time—once every part is new, is it the same ship? Further complicating the paradox, if someone were to collect all the original parts and rebuild the ship, which one is the “real” Ship of Theseus?
High touch recruiting

2 months ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

I recently hosted a Design Talent Gathering at Flour + Water in San Francisco; one of my favorite restaraunts. It was an evening for design recruiters to gather and connect with one another—something they haven’t been able to do post-pandemic and with smaller design conference diminishing. We talked about the state of the industry, what we’re seeing in our respective pipelines.
Self-disruption

2 months ago | proofofconcept.pub | David Hoang

Disruption is a word used for startups—sometimes excessively it becomes cringe. The word means introducing an innovation or new business model that fundamentally alters an industry or market, often displacing established companies or methods (e.g., streaming services disrupting traditional television). As a result, startups typically replicate a company that's viewed as leading that disruption.