This readme is intended for people who I work closely with. The purpose of it for people can get to know me a little better by learning about my idiosyncrasies, personalities, and general quarks. I am told I can be a bit of an acquired taste. My goal for you is that you know what I stand for, and why I will or will not do various things that may drive you crazy, or may motivate you to the next level of your journey.

My core values can be summarized into two main things:

1. Curiosity
2. Risk taking

Ever heard of Tuckman's Stages of Group Development? Better known as Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, I take full advantage of the Storming phase. I think it's essential to learning more about yourself, your team, and how you interact with eachother, which leads to the team ultimately growing to and performing at their fullest potential. It leads to some akward conversations at times, and it's not cut out for every one (nor should it!), but I can guarantee you that you and the team will come out of stronger one the top perfomers in the industry.

I will never stop coding or learning. I think of the addage "if you are not growing, you are dying." I apply that sentiment to pretty much everything I do. I love to do read articles mentioning some clever trick or better way to do something.

Perfection is the enemy of good, but optimization over time is how you get to perfection. You should never stop learning or trying to be better. Whether it's something in your personal life, or with your team: always push yourself and others to be better. It may lead to some hard conversations, but I guarantee you'll get closer, be better friends, and ultimately live a better life or develop a superior product because of it.

I want to bring you along for the ride, so if you ever feel like I'm leaving you out, give me a firm nudge and tell me to slow down so you can hop on!

Get and stay out of your comfort zone. Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy

I'm always weary of people who say "we've always done it that way." I know, you've heard this before.. but yes, yes it is still a thing! People really do still say it! People are afraid of change, and they love to be comfortable in their chair every day where nothing exciting ever happens.

How about the flip side? Some people have embrased the chaos a little too much and just take it on each and every day and never figure out a way to improve and wrangle in that chaos to something more manageable so they can spend there time where it counts: on inventing and making better products for the company.

I will never apologize for being skeptical of someone's idea. If I'm asking you questions and trying to poke holes in it, that means I'm very interested in it and want it to succeed and be implemented. The last thing we want is an idea where we implement it and find out later that it is leading us down the wrong path.

I know, sounds crazy. I only say this because I expect it of myself, too. I love telling people to learn by breaking things. Pull down that codebase you know nothing about and try and start tweaking some things to see how it reacts to change. I would rather have you learn and break things in a non-production environment than learning in a fire on production.

Take logical risks. If you think process can be improved or that customers will like something better. Prove it! Come up with a logical argument and let's experiment together. Like I said above, if you are not growing, you are dying. So, in order to grow, you have to take risks. Which leads me to..

Learn from your mistakes; strive to not make the same one twice. Experiment and learn from the outcomes. 99% of things you try probably won't lead to anything, but that 1% can be the golden egg. Even in failure you should be learning things. Apply those learnings to your next experiment.

Educate and train people good enough so they can leave; treat people good enough so they want to stay. Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin

I love to give and receive feedback. Being a manager is a little give and a little take. It's fostering and building a relationship that matters, and isn't just all talk. One on ones are usually the easiest way to do this, but I will always make time for you, day or night, if you need it.

Education is an important part of one's career. People do not automatically have potential, they must strive for it and grow it over time. I will push you to be better, think in a different way, and take on a different perspective. It's not for everyone, but you can achieve anything when you are continuously grow and learn.

Work / Life Balance is important, but getting harder and harder. I understand the complications of the modern workplace. The line between work and personal life is almost non-existent these days. I don't really see it as that anymore, but rather try and be as accommodating as possible by allowing you to be as flexible as possible. That means I won't really look at hours worked, but I will look at metrics that matter the most. Quality throughput is one of the most important metrics, and we'll work on a goal that makes sense for you and the company together.

We'll look at the work you do, and put you on a project that will give you the best opportunity to learn or teach others.