README

Hey! I’m Brian K. This user manual is written for colleagues. It should help you set expectations for our working relationship.

Personal Values

Let’s start with some principles that guide my decision making. I ask that you tell me when I’m not practicing them!

Humility Enables Truth Seeking: I view humility as downstream of healthy self esteem. Respect for myself and others is immutable; it’s not dependent being correct about something. I want to find the right answers, and I’m delighted whether they are mine or someone else’s.
Intrinsic Motivation: I pursue moments of deep personal satisfaction with my work. I work best when I can internalize customer needs as though they were my own.
Kindness: Like humility, kindness is based on a respect for others. I want you to succeed, and I will assume the best of you. That means being direct, offering support and encouragement, and also challenging you at times.
Imagination: I’m playful by nature, and my best work emerges when I’m indulging my curiosity. It’s a good sign when I’m asking lots of questions.
Personal Integrity: I define this as being internally coherent and consistent. Do I act in accordance with what I claim to believe and value? Do I keep my commitments?

I prefer written communication for most things.
I like verbal, synchronous communication when written back and forth goes in circles. I also prefer to talk face to face for interpersonal matters.
I’m a night person, so I may send messages after business hours.
I don’t expect immediate responses on messaging platforms, and I do not respond immediately. If I haven’t gotten back to you in 24 hours and you need an answer, I would greatly appreciate a bump.
I respond quickly to DMs; please use them for urgent matters.
I have the Midwestern urge to bury all feelings into a polite smile, but when I’m at my best I’m both direct and upbeat during conflict.

Wondering. If you listen for it, you’ll catch me saying “I wonder if/why/etc….” multiple times a day
Exploring and prototyping
Diving into novel-to-me theory and then applying it
Collaboration that feels like improv: looking back and thinking “whose idea was that?”, unable to say because a group molded it together.
Deep satisfaction from a sense of creating Quality.

Repetitive work like precisely copying text from one program to another
Rapid successive context switches, such as a day in which I attend 5+ meetings with wildly different subject matter.
Execution that doesn’t require much thinking.
Working on a project or initiative where I either don’t know or don’t believe in the larger context.
Nothing drains me more than feeling like I’m not living my values. This happens subtly. Here’s an example that took me awhile to figure out: I’ve given low confidence timeline estimates on projects. When timelines slipped, I became emotionally drained. This is because I felt I hadn’t been seeking truth when I gave the estimate. Because the estimate wasn’t coherent with my internal belief about the project, it challenged my integrity. [note: I’ve learned how to reframe project estimation to avoid this inner conflict]

I’m a narrative thinker. I frequently step back to summarize discussions into a short, coherent story. It will gnaw at me if I’m unable to do that because it means I don’t understand something.
I solve a lot of problems in my subconscious. If I’m unsure about something and it isn’t urgent, I’ll put it into my “background workers”. It might appear like I’m ignoring it, but often it sits there and coalesces. The next time the situation pops up I’ll have a strong opinion on the solution.
I’m highly flexible, and I tend to fill perceived gaps in a group. For example, I’ll step back if I sense someone is leading well, and I’ll step forward if I sense things are rudderless.
If I’m not frequently smiling and cracking jokes (of admittedly varying quality), something is seriously wrong.
I will slightly derail meetings to socialize. I don’t treat work as a family, but I enjoy being friendly with colleagues. I want to know who you are outside of our work together.

If you are still curious about how I think, check out this list of influences.