My name is Lucas. My preferred pronouns are He/Him/They.
The purpose of this document is to help us work better together by aligning on what I value and how I work.
I am primarily an engineer but do (and often prefer) wearing many hats. I enjoy supporting others, both directly and indirectly.
I value transparency. Be open about as many things as possible and public by default.
When we keep things open we stay accountable to both internal and external parties. If my beliefs and reasoning are flawed, we are better able to collectively correct them and get better feedback faster.
Transparency also creates awareness, allowing others to grow and learn. It attracts talented individuals personally and professionally, contributing to a better environment both inside and outside the workplace.
I value asynchronous workflows. Realtime does not scale well and does not fit all workmodes. In certain cases realtime communication can be preferable but asynchronous better allows us to work independently, efficiently, and perform deep work.
I value documentation. Documentation supports transparency, asynchronous work, and communication. We should go to great lengths in order to keep knowledge recorded and outside our heads. We shouldn't have to rely on memory and we should better our abilities, not our memories, which are just lessons for future action.
I value strong opinions, loosely held. We should have strong defaults but be willing to change our minds based on evidence.
I value minimalism. Both in my professional and personal capacity I admire the journey to reduce something to only what matters.
I prefer asynchronous to synchronous communication (see above). I prefer communication to non-communication.
I will always prefer a well-constructed message to an open-ended request for a "quick chat". We can all work more effectively by forcing ourselves to clearly state a request and providing that information up-front to those we wish to communicate with. Some problems do need to be talked out, but it is not often the best path forward.
Feel free to reach out to me at any time. I snooze communications when unavailable but happy to respond as soon as I'm able. If I ping you, unless otherwise stated, please respond at your leisure. Unless it is communicated, it is never an emergency.