What Thuan Pham thinks about design

@thuan-pham · 24 positions · On ppll ↗

Uber's first Chief Technology Officer, from 2013 to 2020; later CTO of Coupang and of Faire.

Thuan Pham did not write this page.

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Only Thuan Pham on design. See everyone on design

2 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Thuan Pham has said — not written or endorsed by them.

2 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

1. 1 Apr 2026

   Our readingA technical leader should let engineers find the flaw in their own design through leading questions rather than announce it, because a discovered flaw is acted on and a reported one is argued with.

   Their wordspretty soon by asking those leading question, the engineer now discovered a flaw that this thing would not scale,

   ↗Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber's first CTO)youtube.com 5th of 24 in this recording

3. 1 Apr 2026

   Our readingThe right way to specify a rescue rewrite is a couple of scaling constraints and no new features at all, so that hardware can absorb the growth the team has no time to design for.

   Their wordsNo new feature necessary. Just make sure that we can do that. And then that allow the business the company to just pour a whole bunch of hardware behind that and it will scale.

   ↗Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber's first CTO)youtube.com 6th of 24 in this recording