Hear me out.
Author Archives → David Hoang
It’s always been about the app layer
With the reports of Open AI looking to buy AI IDE Windsurf, the conversation is shifting about owning the full stack. For me, this has been obvious since day one. Model companies play a crucial role in AI infrastructure, but for most end users, the application layer is going to be the differentiator for them. At some point, models will get so cheap and an abundance of different ones where choosing them matters less for general use cases.
Application UX and adopting behaviors has always been the biggest blocker to AI adoption, which is why I believe design is more important than ever. It’s one of the primary reasons I decided to join Atlassian to work on Rovo; many exciting UX opportunities for AI-first interfaces.
Why junior designers struggle to find their footing
Thoughts on Carly Ayres article, Why junior designers struggle to find their footing.
This is a must read from Carly Ayres; a first-hand look at why junior designers are struggling to find mentors. Mentorship is completely broken because people tried to commototize it and now the constructs of how we practice our craft is changing every waking moment. Sabina Cabrera, the designer interviewed in the piece, shares an interesting observation…the people who used to mentor are trying to survive:
“We’re entering an era where a lot of people just haven’t been mentored, so they’re like, ‘Why would I do that for someone else?’ She’s not wrong. Senior designers today are more likely to be navigating layoffs than onboarding interns. Even those inclined to give back are operating in survival mode. ‘If you’re a designer today, you’re not chilling,’ she says. ‘You’re like, ‘What’s all this AI stuff? I don’t have time to educate tomorrow’s designers while trying to learn new tools and also make sure I don’t get laid off.’”
In times like this I reflect on the words of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
Take time to mentor one person. If all collectively do that, this is how mentorship scales.
It’s embarrassing how much you can get done in 25 minutes if you focus on doing one thing. I’ve been using the Pomodoro Raycast extension and it’s been extremely helpful.
A key role of being a significant other is making dreams come true. Jessica has been supportive through some wild times in my career. Today, we opened her own interior design studio in Palm Desert.
Clearly Episode 1 and 9 were the only two ones re-written for Daredevil: Born Again.
Productivity hack if you need focus for deep work: delete your entire browser history. The friction of logging into a web app helps you prioritize what’s essential.
White Lotus – S3E8
I’m a simple person. You offer a one-time/lifetime subscription for software, I buy it.
My Geriatric Millenial toxic behavior is still listening to LCD Soundsystem and checking in on Swarm.