Farhan Thawar is the head of engineering at Shopify, where he oversees more than 1,000 engineers and a platform that powers over 10% of all U.S. e-commerce. Before Shopify, he was VP of engineering at Pivotal Labs and Xtreme Labs, and co-founder of Helpful.com. In our conversation, Farhan shares: • Why choosing the harder path leads to better outcomes • How to create intensity within your org (without burnout) • Why every company should be embracing pair programming • How he hires without interviewing • How he built the world’s largest internship program • His mission to create a “crafter’s paradise” for engineers • Much more — Brought to you by: • DX—A platform for measuring and improving developer productivity • Persona—A global leader in digital identity verification • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security — Find the transcript at: lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-shop… — Where to find Farhan Thawar: • X: x.com/fnthawar • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/fnthawar — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: lennysnewsletter.com • X: twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky — In this episode, we cover: — Referenced: • The Steve Jobs quote about connecting dots: goodreads.com/quotes/463176-you… • Shopify: • GitHub: • Farhan’s “questions to ask” framework: • Palantir: • Joe Liemandt: • Chamath Palihapitya: • Xtreme Labs: • Parkinson’s law: • Pair programming: • Cody Fauser on LinkedIn: • How Shopify builds product: • Chaos Monkey: We look at Shopify’s new ‘culture of focus’: • Empowering devs with AI: How Shopify made GitHub Copilot core to its culture: • Tobi Lütke of Shopify: Powering a Team with a ‘Trust Battery’: • Brian Chesky’s new playbook: • Stop Being Deceived by Interviews When You’re Hiring: • Shopify’s made the Life Story a major part of their interview: • Internships at Shopify: • Nick Adams on LinkedIn: • React Native: • Swift: • Acquired podcast: The Mark Zuckerberg interview: • The Power of Performance Reviews: Use This System to Become a Better Manager: • Airbnb’s Vlad Loktev on embracing chaos, inquiry over advocacy, poking the bear, and “impact, impact, impact” (Partner at Index Ventures, Airbnb GM/VP Product): • The Secret to a Great Planning Process—Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite: • How to do great work: • Challengers on Prime: • Halt and Catch Fire on Prime: • Meta Ray-Bans: • Making Meta | Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth (CTO): — Recommended books: • The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds: • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World: • Manna: Two Visions of Humanity’s Future: • Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street: — Production and marketing by . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.