§01 · About
How I think,
what I like
§01.1
Values & Philosophies
Toward People
- Listen, understand, learn, grow.
- Be kind, clarify miscommunications and be willing to forgive.
- Uplift your peers and juniors to be their best.
- Be gentle but firm with your convictions, and be able to explain why you hold them.
- Be aware of your biases. They can add colour to your perspective, but don't let them harm others.
- Fostering diversity & inclusion is the responsibility of the already-included, not the diverse.
In Engineering
- Don't use black boxes: understand the strengths and limitations of your tooling.
- Write code for the eventual reader: be expressive, clear and accessible.
- Optimise where relevant, but make those decisions obvious and easy to understand.
In Business
- Always ask 'Why?' (and don't stop until there is a satisfying explanation).
- Hypothesize, validate and iterate. Ideally before any code is written.
- Maximise customer impact. We build products for customers, not for ourselves.
- Find opportunities for customer delight where possible.
- Understand both the opportunity cost and value of tradeoffs, and make them aggressively when it directly serves impact.
In Leadership
- Culture is the environment that lets a team thrive: set a high bar, then rise to it together.
- Teach to fish: get into the weeds yourself, then step back and hand over the map.
- Create space for people to shine. Provide oversight without smothering.
- Egoless debate converges on better outcomes than any dictated design.
- If you do something manually three times, automate it. That goes for processes, communication and behaviours, not just code.
- Never waste a crisis: shifting sands reveal more opportunities than they bury.
§01.2
Outside of Work
This is broad. The world is my niche, and I can find something interesting in almost any domain. Ask me about one of these, or throw me down a rabbit hole with something new.
Technology & Engineering
- Generative AI: designing, building, training and applying
- Electronics & circuit design
- 3D CAD modelling & printing (FDM and resin)
- Mechanical engineering & the future of manufacturing
- Home automation & self-hosted SaaS
- Data modelling
The Mind & Body
- Behavioural psychology & neurobiology
- Genetic expression, endocrinology & immunology
- Mental health, disorders and research developments
Social Impact
- Political advocacy
- Environmentalism
- History
Downtime
- Sci-fi and fantasy epics, read and watched
- Gaming: board, tabletop RPG, PC, Switch
- Making (crappy) music
- Being a dog parent
Outside
- Growing green things
- Camping and disconnecting
- Agritech
Movement
- Yoga (yes, I'm a walking stereotype sometimes. What's your point?)
- Cycling: road, mountain and motorbike
- Swimming & scuba diving
Creativity
- Photography & videography