Why He Built (And Shut Down) A Meta Internal Tool for Pseudonymous Communication

Interview Preparation Is Way Better With Others

Here are the core points from the video:
- Social accountability is a good way to motivate yourself to work hard when studying data structures and algorithms, especially given how miserable studying them can be. Peer pressure works!
- Doing a mock interview with a friend can help you prepare for interviews because you are forced to explain yourself out loud. This process will be more akin to the actual interview process, far more than grinding LeetCode at your computer all day.

If you're looking for a mock interview partner, find one with [Taro Networking](https://www.jointaro.com/networking/): [https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews](https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews)

Related resources:
- [[Masterclass] How To Manage Your Time Optimally In Tech And Achieve More Results](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/rnX9EKpzc43TgGW9MozG/masterclass-how-to-manage-your-time-optimally-in-tech-and-achieve-more-results/) - This is the time management session Rahul mentions
- [[Taro Top 10] Effective Interview Prep](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/HLBYxJI7D1j8STolrwum/)
- [[Taro Top 10] Finding A Tech Job](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/E6R0wVJ5EyCfVnVrlfno/)

Finding The Best Environment For Learning

True or false: The best way to level up is to join a team where you are the absolute strongest and know more than everybody. This way, you will get made the lead by default.

Why is it good to be the dumbest person in the room?

How can you really level up your skills building within a tech stack you are already familiar with?

The best environment for learning as a software engineer is one where you can get feedback and grow each day.

What Makes A Good Growth Environment For Promotion

Which of the following is a great way to increase your scope?

True or false: It is good to work in a company where there are constantly too many problems to solve.

Why is there always a plentiful supply of problems to solve in high-growth tech companies?

You did everything right. That wasn’t the problem.

Some people move up because they ask for more.\
Others move up because they already act like they own more.\
Then there’s the third kind—the ones still waiting for someone to notice.

If that feels familiar, this section will explain why hard work alone isn’t the lever you think it is.

**Want to go deeper?**

- Explore more tools and courses at [**Taha’s Method**](https://www.tahasmethod.com/) — from interview prep to leadership development.

- Follow me on [**LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahahussain/) and subscribe to my weekly newsletter, [**The Conscious Leader**](https://tahahussain.substack.com/), for more lessons like these. 

- **Taro members get 30% off** my flagship course [**Top Tech Leader**](https://bit.ly/tarotopleader)*. Discount available later in the course.*

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 5] - Debug Your Productivity

Procrastination thrives when you confuse learning with progress. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Jumpstarting productivity means producing *before* you feel ready — even a rough draft unlocks momentum
- Replace the one-way flow of tutorials with a feedback loop: code → learn → refine
- Writing personal notes or process logs boosts clarity and reduces future ramp-up time
- Systematize repeatable work into reusable components to move faster with each project
- Build a library of “done before” artifacts you can copy, tweak, and ship again and again

Become A Debugging Master [Part 5] - Prioritization

Once you find a bunch of bugs, the next critical skill is knowing how to prioritize them. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Use a framework of frequency vs. severity to quickly assess whether a bug is urgent, trivial, or somewhere in between
- For ambiguous cases, combine metrics (how many users impacted, company priorities) and your own judgment to make a strong recommendation
- Proactively get input from teammates with more context, and be prepared to justify why you’re working on a bug—or why it’s not worth fixing
- Developing this prioritization skill is key to advancing into senior and staff engineering roles, where you guide not just your own work but the team’s direction

Become A Debugging Master [Part 3] - Debugging Is A Premium Skill

Debugging is one of the most difficult yet valuable skills you can develop as a software engineer. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Debugging isn’t just one skill—it involves asking sharp questions, deductive reasoning, clear communication, systems thinking, and holistic understanding
- As AI-generated “vibe coding” becomes more common, engineers who can deeply understand and fix code will become even more valuable
- Successful debugging requires patience and true technical mastery, far beyond just prompting an AI or relying on automated solutions
- Beyond fixing bugs, top engineers also prioritize which bugs matter most, combining technical problem-solving with smart decision-making for maximum impact

Build Deep Relationships Quickly In Tech [Part 21] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Join Taro events here: <https://www.jointaro.com/events/>

See upcoming Group Office Hours with Alex here: <https://www.jointaro.com/p/alex-chiou/>

Start a discussion in the Taro forum here: <https://www.jointaro.com/questions/create/>

Related courses:

- [Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)
- [Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly](https://www.jointaro.com/course/ask-great-questions-that-get-great-answers-quickly/)

Ship & Grow 500k+ User Side Projects [Part 1] - How This Course Works

Like most engineers, do you have a slate of personal projects on your resume but recruiters and hiring managers simply don't seem to care? Well, that's almost certainly because [your projects don't have any users](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/what-makes-a-project-valuable/).

This course is here to fix that issue for you. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing tech lead making $750k at Robinhood. Most importantly, he goes through how he's built 30+ side project apps with 3 of them getting 500k+ users, getting him interviews at top companies like OpenAI, Google, Uber, Instacart, and more

- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will:

  - 1️⃣ Understand what makes a great first version

  - 😯 Learn easy, low-effort ways to improve a product

  - 🗣️ Set up the right mindset for processing user feedback

  - 💻 Know how to build a smooth user interface

  - 📈 Get tactics to acquire users organically

You can find the first side project course here: [Build Side Projects With 500k+ Users: Coming Up With An Idea](https://www.jointaro.com/course/build-side-projects-with-500k-users-coming-up-with-an-idea/)

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 17] - Closing Thoughts

Wrapping up the course, [Sophie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophienovati/) shares her motivations behind helping people achieve their most ideal and ambitious career outcomes and some ways to connect further.

We hope you leave this course with a crystal clear vision of what brings you excitement as an engineer and how to take that next step to get there.

Thanks for watching!

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + personalized job hunt assistance and interview prep? [Formation.dev](http://Formation.dev) can provide you unlimited career coaching, technical mentorship, personalized practice, and mock interviews. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Worksheet: [Formation - Coding Your Career](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/courses%2Fslides%2FFormation%20Career%20Direction%20Worksheet.pdf?alt=media&token=f6344b78-529a-411e-a449-7a34a8d55fc8)

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 15] - Role Types

Depending on what role you’ve narrowed your sights on, there are a number of things you can do in your current role to begin charting progress — from picking a specialization, to start scoping projects and reviewing code, to volunteering for mentorship opportunities and hiring.

Should you be thinking about a change soon, there are also actionable interview prep tips (and mistakes to avoid!) in this section.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + personalized job hunt assistance and interview prep? [Formation.dev](http://Formation.dev) can provide you unlimited career coaching, technical mentorship, personalized practice, and mock interviews. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Worksheet: [Formation - Coding Your Career](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/courses%2Fslides%2FFormation%20Career%20Direction%20Worksheet.pdf?alt=media&token=f6344b78-529a-411e-a449-7a34a8d55fc8)

Amazon Behavioral Interview [Part 1] - Intro

This video introduces a mini-course designed to help viewers master behavioral-based interview questions, commonly used by top companies like Google and Amazon.

- **Focus:** The course emphasizes a framework and process to effectively answer these questions, drawing on the instructors' extensive experience (one was a Google interviewer, the other an Amazon Barraiser).
- **Benefits:** By learning this approach, viewers can confidently handle any interview, reduce stress, and significantly increase their chances of landing their desired job.
- **Content:** The course includes downloadable worksheets and other resources to guide viewers through the process of mastering the "STAR" method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for answering behavioral questions.
- **Instructors:** The instructors have a combined wealth of experience in interviewing and being interviewed at top companies, ensuring the course provides valuable and practical insights.
- **Goal:** The ultimate goal is not just to teach the STAR method, but to boost viewer confidence and significantly improve their chances of success in job interviews.

Learn more about Alan's job search program, Kadima Careers, using this [discount link](https://signup.kadimacareers.com/mQBsDvu).

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 11] - Behavioral Rounds

Data structures and algorithms (DSA) suck up all the air in the room, but behavioral rounds are actually the most important interview round. This lesson teaches you:

- The signal behavioral interviews give that DSA interviews cannot
- The 3 keys you need to communicate in a behavioral interview
- How to structure your behavioral interview answers effectively

To dive deeper into behavioral interviews, take our course here: [Master The Behavioral Interview As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-behavioral-interview-as-a-software-engineer/)

Get The Rating You Deserve [Part 1] - Course Outline

**In this course, we'll explore strategies, principles, and tactics to effectively convert the value you create into the rewards you deserve.**

- **Unleash Your Potential:** We'll address common pitfalls and biases that hinder career advancement, empowering you to overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.
- **Mindset Matters:** By shifting your mindset and adopting a positive, empowered perspective, you can accelerate your progress and achieve significant results.
- **Proven Strategies:** We'll delve into specific strategies and tactics that have been proven to be effective in maximizing your career potential.
- **Real-World Insights:** Through real-world examples and case studies, we'll illustrate how these principles can be applied to your specific career situation.

If you want to get personalized support from Yogi, you can reach out to him at [coaching@yogisharma.com](mailto:coaching@yogisharma.com) or schedule an introductory call to dive into your situation at <https://tinyurl.com/meetyogi>.

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 15] - Putting It All Together: Idea Scorecard

You now have a side project idea. How can you tell if it's good? This lesson teaches you:

- A systematic scorecard you can use to grade the quality of a side project idea
- What a bad side project idea looks like, demonstrated with concrete scorecard examples
- What a good side project idea looks like, demonstrated with concrete scorecard examples

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 8] - The 3 Levels Of Tech

One of the easiest and most common ways to sabotage a side project is build out an idea that's way too technically complex. This lesson teaches you:

- A 3-layer framework you can use to categorize side project ideas and their technical difficulty
- The difficulties of any level beyond Level 1 with Level 2 being incredibly hard and Level 3 being insane
- Why you should stick to Level 1 project ideas as an engineer working on side projects, especially if you're earlier-in-career

Take the code quality course here: [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 6] - Your Idea Is Worthless (For Now)

While the idea behind a side project or any tech product is extremely important, ideas as a whole are usually placed on a pedestal they don't deserve. This lesson teaches you:

- Why ideas are initially worthless
- What truly makes a side project valuable (hint: it's not that much about the idea)
- Why you shouldn't build out the vision of that random MBA you just met for 0 pay and 10% equity

DSA Crash Course [Part 18] - Recursion Intro Lecture

In this lecture, Alvin introduces the mental model we should use when applying recursion.

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

DSA Crash Course [Part 9] - Anagrams Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *anagrams* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace <https://structy.net/problems/anagrams?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [**Alvin's**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [**Structy**](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [**this link to get 20% off**](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Tech Career Growth Videos

Our instructional videos provide software engineers with insights needed for career growth. Masterclasses go incredibly in-depth on a specific tech topic while case studies are real examples from established engineering leaders.