Rahul Pandey Q&A and Videos

I’ve recently been applying to various jobs, just in case of an unexpected layoff (golden parachute). Lately, I’ve been motivated to upskill as a developer. I’ve now reached the two-year mark at my company. After the reorg, I have a new manager, team, and director, and I really like this team. My performance over the past six months has been better than it was with my old team. Recently, Google reached out to me for an interview, but I haven’t really studied data structures and algorithms (DSA) due to work. My performance hasn’t been great, and now I also have a phone interview with Meta.

On the plus side, my company's stock has surged, and we’ve received bonuses, raises, and promotions. In my last 1-on-1 meeting with my manager, he told me I should be more independent and that my performance is great (hinting at a promotion)—fingers crossed. My family and friends are encouraging me to interview with both Meta and Google, but I don’t really want to leave my current company.

The launch of a new AI-based hardware product, Friend, went viral yesterday on Twitter/X:

Most of the reactions I saw online have been very negative. The common complaint is that Friend creates a dystopian future of companionship with intrusive technology.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

• "Friend" is a wearable pendant around your neck that ""
• Friend connects to your phone via Bluetooth and tries to develop a personality based on listening to what you say and do.
• It costs $99 and the product is ~6 months out: pre-orders start shipping in Q1 2025.
• The video on Twitter has been viewed 22M times! That's good marketing.

I'll share my thoughts first.

Questions for Alex and Rahul which I know were covered in some videos somewhere in snippets, but maybe not all in one question. Taro has amassed a lot of great content in its courses and blogs -- how long did it take to create initial MVP of quiz app before the Taro founders quit their jobs to go and work on Taro full time as a startup entrepreneurs?

• When did the founders pivot?
• How long did it take to create initial content (blogs over the years, lots of videos, powerpoints etc.)?

It's impressive to see the amount of rich content, how long did it take for Rahul and Alex to conceptualize Taro (in its early form, name), what ways did they test the success metrics of various pieces of content for a single feature (video series, single video/blog etc.) - how well did they perform over a given period of time?

Just released from OpenAI:

A few observations:

• I love how natural the voice sounds, almost playful
• Incredible that the model is able to take in audio and visual inputs
• Feels like we're getting closer to an AI-companion

Led a meeting successfully, landed a promotion, or earned a certificate from a Taro course? Tell us!

Ghosted by a recruiter, feeling unproductive, or feeling FOMO as the price of Bitcoin skyrockets? Tell us about that too!

We're software engineers -- we use computers a lot! And yet, there are probably lots of things that we're doing inefficiently.

Let's create a thread of quick hacks/shortcuts that can save us time. Doesn't have to be related to programming.

The thing where people go "ooh, I didn't know you could do that!"

Completed hours of deep work, landed a promotion, or tried the Apple Vision Pro? Tell us!

Received a PIP, rejected for a job, or suffering from the "atmospheric river" in California? Tell us about that too!

If you joined Meta at the end of 2022, 1.5 years ago, your equity grant has seen a 4x increase 🤯 So a Staff Engineer with a $800K equity grant over 4 years is sitting on $3.2M. Obviously, very few people get this lucky, but Big Tech is pretty reliable in creating millionaires.

I'm very tempted to sell my remaining Meta stock holdings now... (I joined in 2017 with a stock price of $170/share).

Fixed a tricky bug, got promoted, or landed an interview? Tell us!!

Stuck in code review hell, got ghosted by recruiters, or rejected for promo? We want to hear about that too!

Hi all,

I recently finished the Masterclasses from Alex & Rahul where Alex & Rahul discussed building apps as side projects to put on resumes. Also in , Alex mentioned he monetized his app & got $100 from premium users.

AFAIK, anything above $400 must be put onto tax return. I'm thinking about developing a small side projects & put maybe ads / premium restrictions on some features. If I do this, how do I avoid conflicts of interest with my 9-5 job, especially if the revenue coming in may way surpass $400? I'm working for a large tech company that essentially do everything hence it's hard to find a business area where the company isn't involved in.