Mike Hoang
About me
I'm a full-stack developer based in Vancouver. My attention often goes to the small moments where something feels harder than it should: an interface that takes too much explaining, or a task that someone has to repeat every day. I start wondering how it got that way, and what would make it easier.
That is usually where the work begins for me. Before choosing a tool or writing the first line of code, I want to understand the person using it and what they are trying to do. I enjoy following that question through the whole system, from what appears on the screen to the data and services behind it. The pieces have to work together for the result to feel simple.
I can get carried away noticing things to improve. Over time, I've learned to separate what is actually costing people time from what is simply inefficient. That helps me choose where to put the work. My method keeps coming back to the same idea: software should be easy to use and easy to understand, and designed around the person using it.
Outside work
Away from the screen, I spend time training and love to travel. Those are parts of my life I make room for alongside building things. Travel also gives me experiences I want to share, and lately that has found its way into what I'm making in my own time.
Currently building
I'm building Travel Guide, a platform to share my travel experiences. It brings something I enjoy outside of work into something I can build: a place for the stories that come out of those trips. It's still taking shape, and I'm figuring it out as I go.
Principles
- Code clarity over cleverness. Readable beats impressive. Code that's easy to delete is easier to change.
- Ship early, measure always. Assumptions are wrong. Real data fixes strategy.
- Systems thinking. Problems aren't isolated. Understand how things connect before you change them.
- Debugging is a skill. Not knowing the answer is fine. Not knowing how to find the answer is not.