A Life Engineered

Steve Huynh
  • 5.0 (4)
  • CAREERS

Deep conversations with people who've had exceptional careers to inspire you to have your own exceptional career.

  1. The Career Decisions That Quietly Limit Your Future | Christopher Brown

    2D AGO

    The Career Decisions That Quietly Limit Your Future | Christopher Brown

    Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/skeptomai 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=christopher_brown-sponsored Christopher Brown, one of the founding engineers behind EC2 and former Amazon Senior Principal Engineer, pulls back the curtain on Amazon's transformation into a Day Two company. The path to tech success fundamentally changed overnight.

    1h 1m
  2. $4 Billion Founder: Should You Leave Big Tech or Ride It Out?

    JAN 6

    $4 Billion Founder: Should You Leave Big Tech or Ride It Out?

    Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Guest Links: https://www.waterfall.net (Mention this podcast for $100 credit when you book)https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophe-bisciglia-745aa810 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=christophe_bisciglia-sponsored Christophe Bisciglia walked away from early Google equity that would be worth $72 million today to build a multi-billion dollar company. Now he runs a 120-foot waterfall hotel in Hawaii, programs with AI, and finally works on something he actually gives a sh*t about.

    57 min
  3. Why Even Google Engineers Are Relearning Everything | Maddy Zhang

    12/22/2025

    Why Even Google Engineers Are Relearning Everything | Maddy Zhang

    Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=maddy_zhang-sponsored Guest Links: https://www.instagram.com/madeline.m.zhang/https://www.youtube.com/@maddyzhang Maddie Zhang walked away from Google with four job offers in hand during one of tech’s toughest hiring markets. If you’re thinking about leaving your comfortable job or wondering how to actually land offers in this brutal market, this is your playbook.

    49 min
  4. How Engineers Break Into The Top 1% | Michael Novati

    12/08/2025

    How Engineers Break Into The Top 1% | Michael Novati

    Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! Get the Black Friday offer here: http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=Michael_Novati-sponsored Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnovati/https://formation.dev/ Michael Novati's journey from Meta intern to E7 principal engineer in six years required the company to invent an entirely new career archetype: the "coding machine." This conversation explores the tension between individual excellence and organizational scale, why the coding machine archetype hits a ceiling, and how AI is simultaneously amplifying and threatening this approach.

    1h 9m
  5. Why The Best Reinvent Themselves Every 2 Years | Carlos Arguelles

    11/25/2025

    Why The Best Reinvent Themselves Every 2 Years | Carlos Arguelles

    Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership 👉🏻 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Sign up at http://wealthfront.com/ale. This is a paid endorsement for Wealthfront. May not reflect others’ experiences. Similar outcomes not guaranteed. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. Rate subject to change. Promo terms apply. If eligible for the boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, the boosted rate is also subject to change if base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC ("Wealthfront Brokerage"), Member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The Annual Percentage Yield ("APY") on cash deposits as of 11/7/25, is representative, requires no minimum, and may change at any time. The APY reflects the weighted average of deposit balances at participating Program Banks, which are not allocated equally. Wealthfront Brokerage sweeps cash balances to Program Banks, where they earn the variable APY. Investment management and advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.Instant and same-day withdrawals use the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network or FedNow service. Transfers may be limited by your receiving institution, daily caps, or participating entities. New Cash Account deposits have a 2–4 day hold before transfer. Wealthfront does not charge fees for these services, but receiving institutions may impose an RTP or FedNow Fee. Processing times may vary. Carlos Arguelles came to America at 15 with no English and no money, eventually becoming a Senior Principal Engineer who broke Amazon during Black Friday. He then turned that disaster into infrastructure the entire company uses today. From 12 years stuck at Microsoft to the real differences between Amazon and Google, Carlos reveals what actually separates engineers who plateau from those who break through. This is the career advice nobody gives you until it's too late. Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-arguelles-6352392https://carloarg02.medium.com/ 🚀🚀🚀 Work directly with Steve to get a high performance review and your next tech promotion in a year, guaranteed! Get the Black Friday offer here: http://go.alifeengineered.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=lf&utm_campaign=s2p-nr&utm_content=carlos-arguelles-sponsored

    49 min
  6. Why Even The Best Engineers Are Afraid Of What’s Coming | Philip Su

    11/10/2025

    Why Even The Best Engineers Are Afraid Of What’s Coming | Philip Su

    We’re thrilled to be partnering with Linear.Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Learn more about Linear's integration with GitHub Copilot 👉🏼  https://linear.app/changelog/2025-10-28-github-copilot-agent And get 6 months free of Linear Business (5 seats) 👉🏼 https://linear.app/ale Philip Su climbed to Meta E9, then voluntarily demoted himself to E7 because he missed writing code. Now he's building his own podcast player while sounding the alarm on AI displacement. In this conversation, Philip doesn't sugarcoat it: he thinks most software developers won't be able to compete with AI within a decade, believes companies will choose "more with less" every time, and argues that your career speedrun is actually setting you up for a midlife crisis. But he's not all pessimism. Philip shares why he still pays a developer despite AI being cheaper, explains why the top 1% of engineers will make more than ever, and reveals why he thinks consciousness and wave-particle duality should be dominating our conversations way more than they do. Guest Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphiliphttps://superphonic.fm/

    56 min
  7. Why People Are INVISIBLE To Leaders And How To Fix It | Ethan Evans

    10/27/2025

    Why People Are INVISIBLE To Leaders And How To Fix It | Ethan Evans

    🎉 Big Announcement: Linear is now the presenting sponsor of A Life Engineered!  We're thrilled to partner with Linear for the entire next year. Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Exclusive offer for our listeners: Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership.  👉 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Ethan Evans got fired twice for his big mouth, yet still became a Vice President at Amazon where he built Prime Video and Twitch. In this raw conversation, he reveals what really happens when you fail catastrophically in front of Jeff Bezos, why his CEO retaliated by seducing his wife, and the uncomfortable truth about the trade-offs executives make to reach the top. He's brutally honest about giving himself a "C" as a parent and explains why turtling up after a mistake is career suicide. We dive into the counterintuitive wisdom that most people miss about career growth: why your nervous system is lying to you about risk, how to turn failure into trust, and why building your network might be more valuable than anything you're currently working on. Ethan shares his test for high-potential employees, the exact emails he sent Jeff Bezos during his biggest disaster, and why he told Elon Musk that having VPs code was "a stupid idea." If you want unfiltered truth about what it actually takes to lead at the highest levels of tech, this is it. Guest Link: https://www.ethanevans.com/

    1h 17m
  8. What Big Tech Still Gets WRONG about Great Programmers | Casey Muratori

    10/15/2025

    What Big Tech Still Gets WRONG about Great Programmers | Casey Muratori

    🎉 Big Announcement: Linear is now the presenting sponsor of A Life Engineered!  We're thrilled to partner with Linear for the entire next year. Linear is the purpose-built tool for planning and building products - trusted by companies like OpenAI, Cursor, and Perplexity. Exclusive offer for our listeners:  Get 6 months free of Linear Business (3 seats) to celebrate our partnership. 👉 Redeem at: https://linear.app/ale Guest Links:https://www.computerenhance.com/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/annarettberg/meow-the-infinite-book-threehttps://x.com/cmuratori

    57 min
See All (13)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Deep conversations with people who've had exceptional careers to inspire you to have your own exceptional career.

Information

  • Creator
    Steve Huynh
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 A Life Engineered LLC
  • Show Website
    A Life Engineered

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