I am

HAHATANGO

Curious about almost everything

I am an ideas enthusiast seeing the world through art, music and design, while observing lenses in tech, startups, engineering, stocks, education, behavior, culture, oddities and play to create ideas wherever my curiosity flows.

I grew up in Kansas, am Cantonese, a foodie, share lots on Instagram @hahatango, seek independent critical thinking, question groupthink, search for truth, and choose to be an optimist.

I studied at RISD for Industrial Design, Harvard’s GSD about information space, and the MIT Media Lab for Tangible Media with Hiroshi Ishii, Smart Cities with Bill Mitchell, and as a researcher in the Mobile Experience Design Lab with Federico Casalegno. I’ve worked for Sony, Design Continuum, Herbst Lazar Bell, Invivia, Siemens Medical, TED, and at litl (in Aquent) for serial entrepreneur John Chuang, incubating many startups every ten months.

Upon a global executive promotion, I left my dream job to start my own dream. Before doing so, I Said Go to travel the world (80+ countries) to relearn by discovery, which became a lifelong journey in pollinating new perspectives.

In 2018, I jumped into Jot to Make Imagination Accessible, but soon after I surgically died (aortic dissection, then SCAD), so 2018–22 was a very deep recovery.

This time focused me into my art of investing as my lens (31% CAGR in 13 years). I love learning about startups, companies and people to brainstorm ideas and discover insightful contrarian views. I crave newness over sameness. My investing imagination lives at uckedup.com.

I played the violin for 15 years, was on two TV shows (ABC’s American Inventor and PBS’s Everyday Edisons), designed a shoe for Converse Join RED, and doodled a Timbuk2 Charity Bag. I organized TEDxCambridge in 2010 themed “How do you eat?”, have attended TED for 20+ years, and often review portfolios for RISD students as a guest critic.

Obsessions

  • –Synthetic Humans
  • –AI/Human Hallucinations
  • –AI AI AI: All
  • –Start Up Ideas
  • –Investing, Long
  • –Contrarian Views

Past obsessions

  • The mysterious brain
  • VR / AR / metaverse
  • Knockoffs, why do they matter?
  • The good design dilemma
  • Truth, though society may not seek it
  • Space / future
  • Aliens / metaverse
  • FPV drones
  • Chess
  • Health Hell, Recovering
  • Handedness: left vs right
  • Human oddities: screaming, clapping, etc.
  • Photography / Sony A7II
  • World Travels, I Said Go!
  • Synesthesia
  • Magic, illusions and puzzles
  • Human irrationality
  • Human superpowers
  • Mantis shrimp
  • Event gatherings
  • Everything startup world
  • User experience design, not UX
  • Mixology / drink
  • Food experiences
  • Smart cities / MIT
  • Tangible media / MIT
  • Art toys / Kidrobot
  • Consumerism / cradle to cradle
  • Sustainability
  • Manufacturing techniques
  • Cool materials: aerogel, Vantablack
  • Behavioral economics
  • Mental design
  • Architecture
  • Graphic design
  • Industrial design
  • Ultimate Frisbee
  • Tennis
  • Violin / orchestra
  • A cappella / The Bobs
  • CGI / FX
  • Fine arts

Questions on my mind

Elsewhere

A few favorites