👋 Welcome to Hance Zhang’s Blog
I write about learnings in leadership, AI, product building, and investment. I’m currently based in Tokyo, DM me via X!
Domesticated by Technology
Efficiency gains don’t create leisure because technology is selecting what kind of humans survive
Stop Debating, Build the Experiment Machine
Product development in the AI era isn’t about building better products—it’s about building better assembly lines
Mimetic Desire and the Performance of Contrarianism
In the AI gold rush, ‘being contrarian’ has become its own consensus; the real move is choosing the life that fits you.
GPT-5 Is the Watershed: From 'Model Will Absorb Everything' to 'Environment Is What Matters'
The model and product layers in the AI industry are more clearly separated than ever.
Compute Is the New Leverage (and Probably the Best One)
Rich concensus is no longer necessary as compute outperforms labor as a leverage
Bitter Lesson, End-to-end Coding, Creator Economy
The Bitter Lesson is true for research, but product development requires working with the model’s grain, not against it.
Why Growth Hacking and A/B testing is Bullshit Before PMF
Forget growth hacks before PMF; your first, unscalable mission is to craft a ‘10-star’ user experience that people truly love and rave about
From 'I Think' to 'I Tried': Building an Experiment-Centric Team Culture with AI
We’ve all been in those meetings: discussing a new idea, an innovative project, and then getting bogged down in endless debate. Everyone speaks with conviction, citing classics (or perhaps just an article they saw yesterday), but the discussion seems to go in circles, often ending inconclusively or with the decision made by the loudest voice, the highest-ranking person, or the most stubborn. Why does this happen? Especially in the realm of innovation?...
The Scorecard Fallacy: How Promotion Decisions Are Really Made
Your stellar performance review isn’t the key to promotion; the real secret lies in understanding the humans making the decision.
Corporates Hire by Abundance, Not by Necessity
Big-tech hiring is driven by excess, not necessity.