Howdy 👋

Like Rumsfeld said,

I know what I know, I don't know what I don't know, but I do know about some of the things I don't know.†

I grew up in Lynn, Massachusetts. "Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin, you never go out the way you come in." That's how the saying goes. The last 13 generations of my family lived there, and the most recent five generations were Lynn Fire Department. My mother worked at the Apple store in the '80s, and my father got himself off the truck and into building LFD payroll processing systems†† when I was young.

Fire Department work is nothing that I've ever personally done; however, I've come to understand that my great grandfather wrote the book Fire Fighting. So, you can anticipate that I share some of the same intensity that you might expect from someone who volunteers to go into burning buildings for a living. You know, you could die at work. That's normal 🥴

Wade's User Manual

Here are some ways to help me work with you better.

Flaws

1. My wit is acerbic; my humor is dry 👀
2. I get excited about gifs. Sometimes I go overboard 🙃
3. Sumtimz eye spelle wrang, specially in Slack, and on porpoise
4. Sometimes, I obfuscate my opinion for purposes of either humor (see 1.) or because I want you to think for yourself and draw your own conclusions. In the latter case, I'm waiting to hear what you think 😅 It's good to say what you think 💬
5. Sometimes, I spend little time crafting my words (especially on Slack). Which may be misinterpreted as disrespectful. If this happens, it's OK to say, "That's fair, but perhaps you should consider your tone." 🤗
6. Before you and I built a relationship, it may have seemed like I didn't care for you 💔
   • I may be curt, especially when I'm busy.
   • If you want my grace, help me see how considered you are by communicating in public channels and sharing your work. If there's no way for me to know how much work you're getting done, I tend to assume there isn't any.
   • My closest friends use words to describe me that I would never use, like "accessible and empathetic and loyal" 🤷 Really?
7. I do not suffer fools well ⛔
   • If I'm working with you, I will attempt to explain things approximately twice. As my father used to say, "You don't get Three."
   • When I detect what appears to me as low competence, I tend to salvo challenges in a genuine attempt to allow the user to disprove my hypothesis of their capability.
   • If this happens to you, it's best to read my words as asking you to either tell me that I'm wrong or take responsibility for the always excusable temporary lapse.
   • It's OK to say "Got it" and fix the issue, and it's OK to say "You're wrong because [reasons]."
   • You are likely to negatively affect my view of your capability by saying "Got it" and not fixing it.

Preferred Working Style

1. I work 100% remotely.
2. I do my best-focused knowledge work in the mornings.
3. I'm usually mulling through random things in the afternoon.
4. When I get sucked into a specific thing, I might stay up all night and sleep the next day. I'll let you know when this happens, so I don't miss anything important.
5. I can make morning meetings, but I prefer meetings in the afternoon for the above reasons.
6. I have two children, and they occupy my non-working hour.
7. I am online almost all the time and semi-impatiently waiting for someone to say something in Slack so I can consider it and respond.

What Motivates Me

• I want to be the best at what I do. I need the people around me to be the best at their jobs. I want world-class everything all the time, and I am unrelenting in this pursuit. I want our company to be the best. If I've invested my time with you, it's not for us to settle for second place.
• I need direct feedback. I am unflappable, you can tell me anything you think, and I will seriously consider it. You cannot be afraid to tell me what you think. I crave it, and it will help us build a better relationship.
• I am hard on issues. I say what I think. Sometimes this can come off as inappropriate or aggressive. I do it because I care about the issue. The issue is the issue; I want us to be successful together.
• Strong Opinions, Loosely Held. I have opinions; I'm sure you do too. Please convince me that you're right. Sometimes, I come in hot and say XYZ. Fifty-one percent of me believes this, forty-nine percent of me is trying to convince you. If you have a better logical argument, I will be 100% on your side in a heartbeat.

What Demotivates Me

• I don't feel productive after a full day of meetings. There are usually better things to do. Sometimes calls are necessary. I don't like them at the beginning of the day, and I don't like them at the end of the day.
• I don't react well to learning that you didn't like something I did through the grapevine. Did I f*ck up? Would you please tell me directly so I can fix it? When I hear you didn't like something about me, my performance, or my behavior from a third party, I may become disengaged, and I tend to trust you less. But, on the other hand, if you are direct with me, I will respond positively to you and appreciate the feedback.
• I don't care for people who don't care. When I notice consistent sub-world-class level operation, I become frustrated. It is inaccurate to say this demotivates me. I am likely to become more direct, which may be misconstrued as aggressive, in this situation.

My Values (and what I value in others)

1. Iteration Tomorrow will be better than today, and today is better than yesterday. The math says that compound interest pays more dividends than short-term efforts.
2. Radical Candor I will challenge you because I care. I will overtly tell you my considered opinion. I expect that you will do the same.
3. Responsiveness I do my best to be as responsive as possible - as if I'm in the same room as you. I don't expect everyone to be online all the time, but if you are online, I may become annoyed with a non-similar-ish response time to my own communication preferences.
4. Transparency Share your work, early and often. If I can't see it, I assume it doesn't exist.
5. Trust We have to trust each other to work well together.

My Blind Spots

• I say what I think. I do think about what I say, and I could be a politician if I spent all my time working on it, but I do not. Sometimes, especially when I'm on deadline for deliverables (currently 2021-07-02: all the time), I spend far less time thinking about what I say. If this comes off as abrasive, it's good to say, "Did you mean [paraphrase]?"
• I think what I do is good. I am considerate about issues, and the work I do aims to solve those issues. But, I can convince myself that my approach is the best without input. Sometimes, I need a different perspective, well-articulated, to help me understand how my work can be better.
• I expect direct communication. It's easy for emotions to be lost through text on the internet. I'm never intentionally aggressive towards people, but I'm fierce about ideas.

Communication Preferences

My response time will be lagging if it's before 9 AM Mountain Time. I'm also slow to respond between 5 PM-8 PM Mountain.

• Email: I get back to email sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
  • Expect a reply within one week.
• Slack: I'm on Slack nearly all waking hours.
  • Expect a reply within 20 minutes.
  • Unless it's a private conversation, don't DM me, please. There's a public channel for that.
  • If you have direct feedback for me, please DM me, please: "can we talk?" and I will zoom you in ASAP.
• SMS/Phone: If you couldn't raise me on Slack, it's unlikely that phone will work better. I do not answer calls from unknown numbers, and my phone is always on silent.
  • Expect a reply time between 8 - ∞ hours if I don't have your number
  • Expect a reply within 3 hours if you call/text me and I have your number.
• Zoom: The best way to schedule a call with me is to check my calendar (if you're working with me already) or use my wadewilliams.com/contact link

Note: This is the internet, don't bother spamming me, I've blocked you before you knew I blocked you

My Pet Peeves

• Expecting an inconsistent response time from the wrong communication channel
• Lack of consideration
• Lack of care
• Lack of due diligence
• Posting non-sequitur comments in the wrong Slack channel

Trivia

• I've lived in Wyoming since 2016.
• I lived in Nepal for three months.
• I lived in Arizona for five years.
• I lived in Florida for ten years.
• I've spent some time in 47/50 states.
• I will meet you to play pinball.
• I have a Spotify Playlist called Code

Moar spam...

---

#### Footnotes

† The content of this quote is accurate, but it is certainly several times removed from anything the man ever said. The first commit was dated June 29, 2021, and Donald Rumsfeld died on Jun 30, 2021. RIP.

†† Yeah, he's still pissed off about leap years.