G'day 👋 🎉
You’re here because chances are, we work together now!
📝 Disclaimer
People are an ever changing complex mashup of quirks, biases and preferences.
A README for a human is pretty much immediate legacy, so my aim here is only lo-fi info.
This doc is an addition to, not a substitute for, us having a chat together. ☕ / 🍺
- Why does this exist?
- My Role
- My Principles
- Contacting Me
- My Day
- 1-on-1's with me
- Feedback
- My values
- My Quirks
- My Interests
I'm not a line manager, but in some form my role has leadership expectations.
I believe effective leaders must be knowable.
This README is just an opportunity I have to make myself more knowable to you, and I welcome many more.
As a Software Architect, I will be in service to you
- To provide clarity.
- To build context.
- To give direction.
- To advise on technical decisions, costs and strategies.
- To deliver working software, and world class products.
- To grow talent (that’s you).
- I want to maximise the amount of Work Not Done.
- This means staying focused on the work that matters
- This is because I hate Busy Work, being busy != being productive
- I often focus on "Preventing Software" (see above).
- You can do 1 thing well, or a few things poorly. I defend the law of WIP.
- Complexity is the primary force that undoes us as Software Practioners, and I love to remove it.
- We are all learning over time. A sound Software Architecture should welcome change and limit the cost of reversions or corrections for delivery teams as we learn.
- A cohesive technical landscape enables a homogeneous product, the two are symboitic.
💬 I like Slack.
I’m most responsive on Slack and I don’t mind a big novel being dumped into a DM.
If it’s important, needs a face-to-face conclusion or is for a date some time away - best email me that content and book my calendar at the same time.
If it feels like we’re having trouble communicating I will always tend towards "let's chat face to face” - that’s my preference.
My speech can get a bit 'aussie', please remind me if I'm speaking nonesense.
If you speak Japanese or Sweedish please teach me more!
🕞 I'm strong in the morning, but vulnerable to 3:30'itus.
💻 I’m always interruptible at my desk, please come over.
🏃 I relish the opportunity to change scenery, so if you just need a chat - I’m up for a walk.
👥 I might have a lot of Things on the go, but few of them are more important than talking with you.
📆 If you would like a regular catchup, I'll suggest we start a ritual (rather than Adhoc).
Every second Tuesday, Inside Coffee with Matt @ 9:00 am
I generally encourage shorter, more frequent catchups.
When we have a 1-on-1, they are for you.
Without an agenda I might ask you "What sucks?" - this often unpacks what you feel is succeeding, what isn't, and how I can help.
I make mistakes, that's the price of entry.
It’s because I want to improve, which is why I highly value your feedback.
I understand giving feedback can be difficult. I’m happy for you to give feedback in whatever form makes you comfortable (even anonymously via my manager), however I prefer in-person feedback, because it allows me to get context and confirm I take away the right stuff.
- I’m comfortable with candour and transparency, but I appreciate not every one is.
- I have opinions, this does not mean they are correct. Please challenge my opinions so that I can learn with you.
- I always start with an assumption of positive intent, I believe people try to do the right thing with the information they had at the time.
- My role may at times require me to withhold information but it never requires me to lie.
- I have (amoung many others) a bias to execute. DO IT, DO IT NOW!
- I like to be direct and like people who are direct with me.
- I enjoy clearly stated or decided language. An honest attempt at clarity in my own writing has been felt as 'cold' before, I'm working on that.
- Please don't confuse my quiet mid-distance stare with a lack of engagement, I'm just thinking.
- I have a poor memory. You might notice I’m always carrying a notebook. I like to take lots of notes, it helps me remember.
- Please don’t be concerned if I’m scribbling madly when we talk, I’m listening very carefully.
- I might greet you with a fist bump. I started doing it factiously ten years ago and now I can’t stop.
- Pressing "100" on a microwave is the same as pressing "60" but pressing "101" goes for 1m 41s and no matter how many letters I write to Russle Hobbes this continues.
- BBQ shapes don't taste like anything I've ever cooked on a BBQ or even any of the units I licked on display at Bunnings but again, Arnotts don't reply to my mail.
| Being | Outdoors |
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| Eating | Cheese |
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🚀 I've benefited enourmously from mentor relationships in my career, and I feel compelled to help others have the same. I want to leave this industry in a better state than how i found it, and supporting a mentorship culture has been a pretty effective way of doing that.
I have a particular passion for education
- I’ve worked with primary schools & secondary schools to run STEM workshops, holiday programmes and speaking events.
- I’ve been a Course Leader & Lecturer at Australian Universities.
- I’ve presented internationally beside Google, Facebook and Dropbox on the topic of Mentoring.
- I’ve been a mentor in the industry to many wonderful people, most of them women.
From 20-something graduates to mature age career changers. - I've been Involved in a number of Melbourne Graduate Programmes
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent