User:DKinzler (WMF)/User Guide
A User Guide to Daniel Kinzler
Logistics
- Availability: 10am - 10pm CET. My day is roughly structured like this: code in the (late) morning, afternoon with the kids, meetings in the evening (to match US office hours).
- Location: Leipzig, Germany (CET/CEST)
- Preferred Name: Daniel (him/his)
- Preferred communication method: Slack, mail, IRC
- Dietary: will eat almost anything except cucumbers. Pickles are fine.
Things I like:
- Finding elegant solutions to tricky problems
- Finding ways to explain complex things in a simple way
- Lay’s. Salt only.
How to talk to me:
- I don’t care much about politeness. I do care a lot about friendliness and honesty.
- I frown when I’m concentrating. That’s just my thinking face, I’m not mad at you. Promise.
- I hate “shit sandwiches”. If you have bad news, just tell me the bad news. If I was rude, tell me I was rude.
- I generally dislike praise. Just say thank you. I’ll feel appreciated when you ask for my opinion or collaboration next time you have a hard problem.
- I love to explain. Feel free to ask me anything. And ask again if I didn’t explain well enough. Understanding misunderstandings is my favorite kind of puzzle.
- I’m hard to convince. But it’s not impossible, and I won’t be mad at you for trying. Maybe we both learn something along the way.
Things I’m bad at:
- I have no poker face.
- I'm terribel at spelling and typong.
- I’m bad at making conversation.
- I’m terrible at remembering names. No, really, way worse than you think.
- I have a hard time focusing on one thing at a time, and see it through to the -- oh look, a squirrel!
- Initiating contact. I'm shy by nature. No, really!
Annoying things I do:
- I raise concerns about ideas and proposals I actually like and support, and forget that I never made my support explicit. I want to make sure the idea is really as good as it seems. But I forget that it can be disheartening to be at the receiving end of this.
- I talk a lot, I have opinions on everything. When I’m taking too much air time in meetings, tell me. If I overcompensate and stay silent where I should be talking, also tell me.
- I can be oblivious to how I come across. Sometimes I sound harsh. If I was rude or inconsiderate to you or someone else, tell me.
- I sometimes get angry when I’m frustrated. That’s unhelpful. I’m working on it.
Hot takes:
- Myers-Briggs is a scam
- Dune is overrated
- PHP has become a decent programming language