The Curious Engineer

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Ryan Hoover on the internet

ryanhoover.me

Essays / personalTech news / industry

’15’20’25
Posts
202 from 25 Feb 2013 to 9 Jul 2026
Posting
now and then (3 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog

2026 2

  1. Om
  2. Vibecoding is self-expression

2025 6

  1. All that matters is winning
  2. Now's the time for consumer health tech
  3. Silicon Valley's new status symbols
  4. Iterative people
  5. Why I invest in venture funds
  6. Selfish investing

2024 22

  1. The fallacy of “no pain, no gain”
  2. Unwinding as a founder
  3. Everyone’s a generalist
  4. Home, a visual music project
  5. The community trap
  6. Why you should move
  7. Beware of labels
  8. We are Porter
  9. Values
  10. How to make new friends as an adult
  11. Why YourStack failed
  12. Should do. Could do.
  13. The accountability experiment
  14. Finding_Enoughness.wav
  15. The next Turntable.fm?
  16. Non-obvious problems
  17. I asked my friends for anonymous feedback
  18. How are you doing?
  19. Change and authenticity
  20. Real friends
  21. Do scary things
  22. Why I’m excited about profit-sharing startups

2023 3

  1. Generative AI and Moats
  2. Miss you, Little D
  3. Second-Time Founder Anxiety

2020 2

  1. Our latest experiment: Weekend Pitch
  2. What’s in your stack?

2019 7

  1. Weekend Fund 2.0
  2. Turn your side project into a company. Introducing Weekend Build.
  3. A virtual co-working space for makers
  4. The Problems in Remote Working
  5. The Rise of Maker Communities
  6. The Rise of “No Code”
  7. The search for the Weekend Fund Chief of Staff

2018 12

  1. Finding the sweet spot with your team
  2. 5 Years of Product Hunt
  3. Product Hunt Radio is back
  4. A new space for Makers
  5. You have one unread message 👀
  6. Request for (crazy) startups
  7. The New Product Hunt for iOS and Android
  8. A new experimental app from Product Hunt
  9. How we made our first dollar at Product Hunt
  10. Decentralized Startups
  11. Your invite to Product Hunt’s 4th annual community meetup 🎉
  12. RIP emojis. The future of communication.

2017 10

  1. Winners of the Product Hunt Global Hackathon 2017
  2. The Product Hunt Global Hackathon — Join Us! 🌎
  3. Weekend Fund ☀️
  4. Introducing Ship by Product Hunt
  5. Diversify your Twitter friends 👨🏻👧🏽👱🏿👩🏻
  6. Building a startup? Build an audience, first.
  7. Defining your company values in emoji
  8. Introducing Ask Product Hunt 🤔
  9. Pinterest and the visual web
  10. Silicon Valley isn’t “Mainstream”

2016 21

  1. 2016, another year of great music 🎶
  2. Can I help?
  3. Product Hunt + AngelList✌️😸
  4. How to come up with side project ideas
  5. Introducing Product Hunt Cards
  6. Please be kind on launch day 😊
  7. Artificial Intelligence Natives
  8. Stranger Things Mixes You’ll Love 🔥
  9. Email’s not dead
  10. Teaming up with Amazon
  11. Planet of the Apps + Product Hunt, Coming to a City Near You 🙌
  12. Why I’m excited for Planet of the Apps
  13. Introducing Kittybot by Product Hunt 👋
  14. The Product Hunt Shop is Now Open
  15. You’re looking good (on Product Hunt) 😽
  16. A tiny Product Hunt app for your Mac
  17. There’s a Topic for that
  18. New haircut, Product Hunt?
  19. Role models
  20. A few Peachy observations
  21. 2015, a year of firsts

2015 27

  1. A dangerous new game called Camera Rollette
  2. Let’s continue to build Product Hunt, together
  3. 2015, the year I fell in love with music
  4. The New Product Hunt iOS App (described in GIFs)
  5. Say hi to Product Hunt 2.0
  6. #squadgoals
  7. From Rejection to Product Hunt
  8. “Build for fun” (っ◕‿◕)っ
  9. “Everyone is human”
  10. Software and Culture
  11. (Still) Building in Public
  12. Product Hunt LIVE
  13. Live from last week’s Product Hunt Happy Hour
  14. “The world doesn’t need another blogging platform. But I did.”
  15. Startups ≠ Freedom
  16. 8 Products Demonstrating the Future of Tech
  17. Stay classy, Internet
  18. “Holy shit, this thing actually works”
  19. 1,000,000
  20. “I’m scared”
  21. “We learn from each other”
  22. We fucked up
  23. Talking Community and Product Hunt at Startup Grind (video)
  24. My Third Appearance on This Week in Startups
  25. Giving Credit is the CEO’s Job
  26. Product Hunt IRL
  27. Join Product Hunt at the LAUNCH Festival

2014 50

  1. How to create and share badass music videos on Snapchat
  2. “Employee” and other words that make me cringe
  3. My Talk at the CMX Summit (video)
  4. Introducing Product Hunt Collections
  5. Bits of Delight
  6. From CMX Summit: The Building Blocks of Community
  7. This Week in Startups Roundtable (with two Ryan’s)
  8. Dumb Apps
  9. Making Product Hunt
  10. Startup Side Projects
  11. 3 Pieces of Advice for YC Applicants
  12. “Should I apply to YC?”
  13. Motivation
  14. Surreal
  15. Planting Seeds
  16. The Product Hunt Community Scares Me, In a Good Way
  17. The TapTalk Meta Game, #tapwhere
  18. YC + PH
  19. Crossing this off my bucket list: Get on This Week in Startups
  20. Well that was a first…
  21. OH
  22. It feels like the wheels are about to fall off
  23. First Impressions of Snapchat Chat
  24. First Impressions of Snapchat Chat
  25. The Building Blocks of Community: The Story of Product Hunt (Presenting at #EETN)
  26. Compete with Kindness
  27. Why you should build your product in public
  28. Understanding People
  29. My Favorite Product Hunt Finds: February 2014
  30. Product Hunt Live Founder AMA Recap
  31. Can technology make the world more empathetic?
  32. Emailed Receipts: A Missed Opportunity
  33. 60 Second Thank You
  34. There's No Right Way to Start Up
  35. Stop It, Guys
  36. The Building Blocks of Community
  37. "Why do you cross-post your essays?"
  38. Startup Storytelling
  39. Five Hard Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Starting Up
  40. Secret's Super Smart Push Notifications
  41. You'd be Surprised What Really Motivates Users
  42. Secret and the Need for Anonymity
  43. Nostalgia: A Product Designer's Secret Weapon
  44. Hanging out with Justin Jackson
  45. Small Rant on Invitation Etiquette
  46. 14 Startup Postmortems
  47. Why I Never Change My Profile Pic
  48. How We Got Our First 2,000 Users Doing Things That Don't Scale
  49. Mashup Products
  50. The 20-Minute MVP

2013 40

  1. What is your biggest accomplishment and mistake of 2013?
  2. "Hooked" Book is Now Available
  3. 15 Most Popular Essays in 2013
  4. Is The New Snapchat Brilliant Or Totally Boneheaded?
  5. Blogging is the New Resume
  6. Hunting for Habits: Keying in on smart design to make a product irresistible
  7. Product Hunt Began as an Email List
  8. My New Project: Product Hunt
  9. Not Normal
  10. Startup Lessons Growing from 10 to 100
  11. A Frightening Future
  12. Grow Your Email List with this Simple Twitter Hack
  13. Don't Learn to Code
  14. Do Small Stuff
  15. Native Messaging
  16. A Fireside Chat with Nir Eyal (via cartoons!)
  17. Growth Hacking Word of Mouth
  18. Blogging vs. Building
  19. Announcing Product Hunt
  20. Do "Shitty" Work
  21. Want to Feel Badass? A Design Teardown of Music App Mindie.
  22. Is Your Product Too Engaging?
  23. I Never Sync My Jawbone Up
  24. Impostor Syndrome
  25. Turning a Hobby Into a Career
  26. Dangerous Advice
  27. Frontback: The Gift and Curse of Selfies
  28. Why Distraction Apps Matter
  29. Give Up (for now)
  30. Purpose
  31. The Dribbblization of Blogging
  32. Easter Egg Marketing: How Snapchat, Apple, and Google Hook You
  33. Stop Reinventing the Wheel
  34. Entrepreneurial Advice in Rap Music (Part 2)
  35. Learning = Earning
  36. Entrepreneurial Advice in Rap Music (Part 1)
  37. Write Together
  38. Laid to paid: how Tinder set fire to online dating
  39. Knowing When It's Time to Move On
  40. Email-First Startups