Why Big Tech Companies Do Open Source (From A Director at Meta)

Companies like Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Hugging Face have made enormous contributions to open source. These companies often allocate tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to creating or maintaining open source software. Why? 

- These companies often rely on the software for their production code
- Companies can use popular open-source projects as a tool to recruit top engineers
- Engineers familiar with a company's software will onboard faster

Paper Reading: The Future of Large Language Model Pre-training is Federated

Session led by [Mike A](https://www.linkedin.com/in/malik-mike-a-32b63818b/)

Is the future of model pre-training decentralized?

Join us for a captivating session as we explore the cutting-edge breakthrough of federated learning in language model pre-training, featuring an in-depth discussion of the "The Future of Large Language Model Pre-training is Federated" paper!

This paper reading event will shed light on how federated learning (FL) could be set to revolutionize the training of large language models (LLMs). Discover how FL could mobilize vast, underutilized data and computational resources from across the globe, enabling large-scale collaboration and democratizing the pre-training of LLMs. Learn about the innovative approach that allows organizations, and hopefully, soon individuals, to collectively train LLMs using limited resources while matching or even surpassing the performance of traditional centralized models!

This event is a must-attend for AI researchers, software developers, data scientists, and tech enthusiasts eager to grasp the future of LLM pre-training and its implications for AI advancements. Whether you're interested in scaling AI models, leveraging federated learning for collaborative training, or simply curious about the next big thing in AI technology, this paper reading offers invaluable insights and discussions on some of the latest AI research.

Mark your calendars and join us for an exciting hour of "Federated Learning: The Future of Large Language Model Pre-training" exploration!\
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**Reference Links:**\
[https://flower.ai/\
https://github.com/adap/flower](https://flower.ai/￼https://github.com/adap/flower)

Closing Advice- Relationships Control Your Progress

In this lesson, we discuss the **career lesson Ethan wishes he had understood earlier: being right and technically capable are not enough to determine how far you progress**. Understanding the organizational dynamics happening around you—and recognizing the importance of relationships—can be just as important for navigating your career as the quality of your individual work.

- **Being right isn’t enough:** Technical expertise and strong execution matter, but they are only part of what determines your ability to succeed and advance within an organization.
- **Take organizational dynamics seriously:** Even individual contributors are affected by management decisions and workplace politics, so dismissing them as simply “management stuff” can leave you unaware of forces shaping your career.
- **Invest in relationships throughout your career:** Relationships play a significant role in creating trust, opportunities, support, and ultimately your ability to progress within an organization.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Minimizing Politics

In this lesson, we discuss how **people who dislike workplace politics can reduce their exposure to it by choosing the right environment and building enough professional leverage that their work speaks for itself**. Politics may never disappear completely, but working for the right leader, developing scarce expertise, and joining a growing organization can reduce the need to compete for attention, influence, and limited opportunities.

- **Choose your manager carefully:** Look for leaders who share your preference for rewarding strong work and expertise rather than requiring employees to constantly navigate organizational politics.
- **Become exceptionally valuable in a difficult area:** Developing scarce expertise and solving problems that few others can solve creates leverage, making your contribution difficult to ignore and potentially giving you greater freedom from other organizational expectations.
- **Look for high-growth environments:** Politics can intensify when opportunities are scarce and employees are competing for a limited number of roles. Rapid organizational growth creates new teams, responsibilities, and leadership positions, giving more people opportunities to advance without competing for the same seat.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Offense Tactics

In this lesson, we discuss how to **build enough influence and organizational strength that targeting you—or your team—simply isn’t worth the effort**. Whether dealing with a self-interested colleague or another organization competing for your scope, protection comes from understanding other people’s motivations, building strong support around your work, maintaining high performance, and creating a compelling narrative for why your organization should remain intact.

- **Build enough soft power to become an unattractive target:** Strong relationships, allies, organizational support, and a track record of performance can make attempts to undermine you significantly more difficult and costly.
- **Understand the story other people tell themselves:** People rarely view their own actions as malicious. Understanding how others rationalize their behavior can help you anticipate their moves and frame cooperation with you as the most practical choice.
- **Defend your organization with performance and narrative:** When other teams compete for your scope, demonstrate the value and complexity of your work, highlight the costs and risks of disruption, and clearly articulate why keeping the organization intact serves the broader business.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Outsized Influence From Ideas

In this lesson, we discuss how **influence and soft power can extend far beyond your formal position or the number of people you manage**. Even relatively junior employees can shape major company decisions when they combine a compelling idea with strong storytelling, persistence, and the ability to get that idea in front of people who have the authority to make it happen.

- **Influence doesn’t require formal authority:** Employees at any level can have an outsized impact when they identify an opportunity and take initiative to advocate for it.
- **Turn good ideas into compelling stories:** Successful proposals often begin with a simple, understandable vision that helps others quickly see the potential value of the idea.
- **Get your idea in front of the right people:** A strong idea alone isn’t enough. Building influence requires persistence, enthusiasm, and strategically communicating your vision to people with the power and resources to turn it into reality.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Leaving Facebook

In this lesson, Philip explains why he chose to leave Facebook despite having a successful career at the company. Part of his decision came from wanting to focus his energy on broader societal challenges, including income inequality and his early concerns about technology-driven unemployment. 

- **Your value to an organization can change as the company grows.** Philip’s generalist skill set allowed him to make an outsized contribution when Facebook was smaller, but as the company scaled to thousands of engineers, he felt his particular strengths were becoming less differentiated.
- **Generalists can have an advantage in smaller companies.** Startups frequently have work that doesn't justify a dedicated full-time role, making people who can move between engineering, product, hiring, operations, and other responsibilities particularly valuable.
- **Scale creates greater demand for specialization.** As organizations grow, previously fractional responsibilities become full-time jobs. At that point, deep specialists can provide more value in a particular domain, while some of a generalist’s broader skill set may go unused.

Why You Should Be Racist Toward European VCs (An Argument For YC)

James lists his location as San Francisco Bay Area simply to avoid the horrible European VCs (Venture Capitalists).

Umbrella vs Funnel Managers

In this lesson, we discuss why **effective managers need the confidence and interpersonal skill to stand up for their teams without relying on anger or confrontation**. A manager’s ability to push back on unreasonable demands from above directly affects the people reporting to them. When leaders consistently choose the easier path of saying yes upward and passing the consequences downward, employees can also learn to set clear boundaries and help change that dynamic.

- **Strong managers are firm without being hostile:** Effective leaders can deliver difficult messages, disagree, and hold their ground based on conviction rather than needing anger or frustration to fuel confrontation.
- **Managers can be an “umbrella” or a “funnel”:** Good managers shield their teams from unnecessary pressure, while weaker managers may simply pass demands from leadership directly down to their employees.
- **Employees can help change the balance of incentives:** When a manager repeatedly accepts unreasonable demands, clearly communicating your own boundaries—and offering information that helps them push back—can make it easier for them to defend the team rather than simply passing the pressure downward.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Gratitude & Paying It Forward

In this lesson, Philip shares the story behind spending more than $23,000 to buy coffee for everyone at Facebook on his final day at the company. What began years earlier as a simple Christmas gesture became a meaningful way to close out a chapter of his career and express gratitude to a company that had given him extraordinary opportunities, mentorship, and financial success.

- **Recognize the role luck plays in success.** Philip credits hard work for parts of his career, but also acknowledges circumstances outside his control—from when and where he was born to joining Facebook at an unexpectedly transformative moment.
- **Gratitude can be expressed by paying success forward.** After Facebook’s IPO, Philip donated his proceeds to charity, and when he eventually left the company, buying coffee across several offices became another way to give something back.
- **Small gestures can create an outsized impact.** What began as buying coworkers coffee for a day created genuine joy and became a memorable tradition—showing that generosity doesn't always need to be complicated to be meaningful.

Dealing With Difficult People In Other Orgs

In this lesson, we discuss how to **protect your team when a difficult or disruptive person sits outside your direct organization**. Without the authority to manage that person directly, leaders need to understand why the individual remains valuable to their organization, work with their leadership to find alternatives, and communicate firm boundaries without turning the situation into an unnecessary confrontation.

- **Understand why the difficult person is valued:** Before trying to change the situation, identify what value they provide to their organization and why their leadership continues to support them despite the problems they may create elsewhere.
- **Offer solutions before escalating conflict:** Work with the other organization’s leadership to find a better interface, redistribute responsibilities, or otherwise preserve the value they need while reducing the negative impact on your team.
- **Be collaborative while making your boundaries clear:** Explain the consequences of allowing the problem to continue without resorting to threats. Strong leaders can communicate that they are prepared to protect their team while still giving the other side an opportunity to find a mutually beneficial solution.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WaeGfLnRvc&t=24s)

Philip's Advice To His Younger Self

In this final lesson, Philip reflects on the advice he would give himself at the beginning of his career. After years of aggressively pursuing promotions and professional milestones, he realized that achieving a goal quickly matters far less if you haven't first considered whether that goal will actually lead to the life you want.

- **Get clear on your values before optimizing your career.** Knowing what you genuinely want makes career decisions easier—but it’s equally important to question whether reaching that destination will actually give you the life you want once you arrive.
- **Don't sacrifice irreplaceable things just to arrive faster.** Reaching a terminal career level at 30 instead of 38 may matter very little over a decades-long career, while relationships, family, health, and other parts of life can sometimes be permanently damaged in the process.
- **Advice only works when you're ready to receive it.** Philip acknowledges that his younger, intensely ambitious self probably wouldn't have listened to the advice he gives today. Some lessons require experience and maturity before their meaning truly becomes clear.

Original podcast link: [**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2JxdjTi_1I**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2JxdjTi_1I)

Building Credibility As A Young Manager

In this lesson, Philip reflects on becoming a manager at just 24 years old and the challenges of leading people who were older, more experienced, and sometimes more senior than he was. Looking back, he openly acknowledges that ambition and technical ability got him into management before he had developed the maturity and leadership skills necessary to manage others effectively.

- **Being a strong engineer doesn’t automatically make you a strong manager.** Philip’s technical performance helped him enter management early, but leading experienced people required an entirely different set of skills that he still needed to develop.
- **Self-awareness and continuous learning are essential to becoming a better leader.** Philip improved by actively seeking mentors, requesting feedback, studying management, and acknowledging his mistakes rather than assuming that seniority would naturally make him a better manager.
- **Great leadership doesn’t require being great at everything.** Philip recognizes that giving difficult feedback remains a weakness, while inspiring people around a shared mission is one of his strengths. Effective leadership includes understanding where you excel, where you struggle, and where you still need to grow.

Competitive Pay

Big Tech companies are widely known for offering extremely competitive compensation packages, which is often one of the primary reasons engineers aim to work at these firms. This segment outlines both personal anecdotes and structural strategies that explain why compensation in Big Tech is so high.

- **Top-Tier Compensation Strategy**: Meta’s compensation goal, for example, is to pay in the 90th percentile—more than 90% of other tech companies—making total compensation significantly higher for engineers who make the transition into Big Tech.

- **Drastic Pay Increases**: It's common for engineers switching from smaller or non-FANG companies to experience dramatic increases in pay—often as much as 50–100%. Even the speaker was surprised by the magnitude of the raise upon joining Meta.

- **High Cost of Living Justification**: These lucrative salaries help offset the cost of living in expensive tech hubs like Silicon Valley, New York City, and Seattle, where basic housing or property ownership can be out of reach without this level of income.

- **Historical Offers Data**: In 2014, new grad offers ranged from $164K to $270K annually from Big Tech firms—Google, Facebook, and others. Salaries have only increased since then, due to ongoing talent wars and inflation.

- **Prestige + Pay Combo**: Many engineers underestimate the financial upside of Big Tech and initially assume a 20–30% increase is generous. In reality, the combination of prestige and substantial pay is a powerful draw.

Lessons From Crossing $10M ARR (Entirely Inbound)

How did James achieve viral growth as a product analytics company? How does the open-core model of the company help them grow? How deliberate were they with growth?

Taro Book Club: The Pragmatic Programmer - Session 5

Session Led by [Bikram Kashyap](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashyapbikram/)

In this #taro-bookclub discussion, we'll go over [**"The Pragmatic Programmer"**](https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X) by Andrew Hund & David Thomas

Here's the agenda:

- Decoupling
- Juggling the Real World
- Transforming Programming
- Inheritance Tax
- Configuration

Please send your questions ahead of time to [**Bikram Kashyap**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashyapbikram/) in the [**Taro Premium**](https://www.jointaro.com/membership/) Slack, so that they can be included in the discussion. *If you don't have the book or want more details on how this all works, check out the #taro-bookclub channel in the Taro Premium Slack as well!*

Get ready for another engaging and informative session!

Decoding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for Tech Workers

New tax law, same tax code for tech workers… mostly.\
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President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on July 4, 2025.\
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In terms of the impact to your taxes, this bill largely maintains the status quo by making permanent most of the tax changes introduced on a temporary basis through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.\
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It does, however, add a few new wrinkles to the tax code.\
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I’m hosting a live webinar next week to break it all down for tech professionals like you.\
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🎙️ Webinar: Decoding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for Tech Workers\
🗓️ Date & Time: July 24, 2025 from 2-2:45 PM Pacific Time\
📍 Where: Live on Zoom\
💡 Especially relevant for:\
👉 Anyone in a high-income bracket that pays a lot in state & local tax\
👉 Folk planning to make Roth conversions in the next few years\
👉Those considering retiring at 65+ in the next few years\
👉 Anyone considering taking a career break or on an ACA plan\
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We’ll cover:\
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✅ Changes to the deductibility of state and local taxes\
✅ How the new bill affects ISO exercises and your likelihood of paying AMT\
✅ What's up with Section 174?\
✅ Changes to QSBS\
✅ "No tax on tips/overtime"\
✅ Deductibility of new U.S. car loan interest\
✅ The new "Trump account"\
✅ Impacts to Medicaid\
✅ The new bonus deduction for seniors\
✅ Updates to clean energy and EV credits\
✅ How the new rules impact ACA health insurance subsidies

Paper Reading: Enhancing Reasoning Abilities in LLMs through Geometrical Understanding

Session Led by [Lucia Mocz](https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucia-mocz-ph-d/)

The advancement of large language models (LLMs) for real-world applications hinges critically on enhancing their reasoning capabilities. In this paper read, we explore the reasoning abilities of LLMs through a geometrical framework. We establish a connection between the expressive power of LLMs and the density of their self-attention graphs.

The analysis performed in this work demonstrates that the density of these self-attention graphs defines the intrinsic dimension of the inputs to the MLP blocks. In particular, it shows, through theoretical analysis and toy examples, that a higher intrinsic dimension implies a greater expressive capacity of the LLM. Additionally, it provides empirical evidence linking this geometric framework to recent advancements in methods aimed at enhancing the reasoning capabilities of LLMs.

Don't miss this opportunity to deepen your understanding of how geometrical insights can drive improvements in AI reasoning. Whether you're an AI researcher, practitioner, or enthusiast, this talk promises to offer valuable perspectives and groundbreaking ideas.\
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Paper: [**https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02678**\
(Accompanying](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02678￼\(Accompanying) paper: [**https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.01648**](https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.01648))

Paper Reading: Adaptive Radix Tree - ARTful Indexing for Main-Memory Databases

**Session Led by:[ Dharin Shah](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharinshah/)**

**Link to Paper:[ ](https://db.in.tum.de/%5C~leis/papers/ART.pdf)[https://db.in.tum.de/\\\~leis/papers/ART.pdf](https://db.in.tum.de/~leis/papers/ART.pdf)**

This paper reading session, we will deep dive into a in-memory optimized index structure, that leverages modern CPU caches to make IOPS faster, also allowing range queries.

Abstract—Main memory capacities have grown up to a point where most databases fit into RAM. For main-memory database systems, index structure performance is a critical bottleneck. Traditional in-memory data structures like balanced binary search trees are not efficient on modern hardware, because they do not optimally utilize on-CPU caches. Hash tables, also often used for main-memory indexes, are fast but only support point queries.

Influence Without Authority

In this lesson we discuss why Ethan gave up a team of 800 to become an advisor at Twitch. We also look at how he approached leading someone he had no power to give orders to.

- Amazon typically assigns a VP as an integration liaison after an acquisition, while the founder stays in charge.
- He deliberately took a role with a goal but no authority to practice his soft skills.
- The challenge was influencing a much younger founder in a business that served a different generation.

Original podcast link:[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40-ENZmqcz0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40-ENZmqcz0)

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.