My favorite react talk of all time ( as as beginner, which I was back then ) was by one of the react training staff, Michael Jackson, who gave it at the London React Meetup back in 2015 or so.
It seems to be the same material as the Imperative v. Declarative ( <Tone /> ) lecture, and I highly recommend it as a mental model to keep in mind when programming in React.
I like this series because it's not 'how to program in react' but more really awesome design patterns and how to use them to better architect your apps.
