had an "intro chat" today that turned into a surprise live leetcode medium in the first 2 minutes. lesson: preparation beats talent, and getting caught off guard says nothing about you. funniest part is their own careers page lists "intro conversation" as step 1 and the technical as step 2, so yeah, that one's on him lol. anyway, back to building. honestly the hardest lessons i've ever learned came from shipping to real users, not from interviews.