My 2026 focus areas - by David Hoang - Proof of Concept

The conclusion of 2025 brought with it the annual ritual of prediction posts for the new year. I enjoy reading them. Most are written in good faith and are thoughtful. However, I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the posture as we navigate high displacement variance. We are in a period where foundational assumptions are shifting at the same time. Interfaces are unsettled, abstractions are collapsing, and roles are blurring faster than titles can keep up. In moments like this, prediction feels less like foresight and more like premature compression. I’m reframing predictions slightly. I’ll frame it on where I’m putting my attention based on trends. What follows isn’t a forecast. It’s a map of interest areas where I plan to spend time going deep. It’s both driven by personal curiosity and a reflection of patterns I’m seeing repeatedly across tools, teams, and workflows. All of it is about developing fluency rather than certainty. These areas are not independent and compound. To

The conclusion of 2025 brought with it the annual ritual of prediction posts for the new year. I enjoy reading them. Most are written in good faith and are thoughtful. However, I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with the posture as we navigate high displacement variance. We are in a period where foundational assumptions are shifting at the same time. Interfaces are unsettled, abstractions are collapsing, and roles are blurring faster than titles can keep up. In moments like this, prediction feels less like foresight and more like premature compression. I’m reframing predictions slightly.