barrymorrison.com

I’m in Central Time.

I’m in US Central Time. But it is not uncommon for me to shift my working hours based on needs or requirements. One of the benefits of working remote is the flexibility it offers. It is also not uncommon for me to be present during “core” hours, stepping way to attend to other things, then return later to address the remainder of my billable hours outside “normal” working hours (think nights and weekends).

• If the event is not on my calendar, it doesn’t exist in my world.
• You don’t need to ask my availability, my calendar is up to date.
• My calendar is treated as first come, first served.
• Use the ‘Optional’ functionality if my attendance isn’t required.
• Max length of a meeting is 50 minutes.

While a team or shared calendar is great for situational awareness, I work under the premise that if someone wanted me in that meeting, they would invite me, resulting in an invite on my calendar.

If you reach out to ask about my availability, I’m going to check my calendar before responding. The permissions on my calendar allow anyone to see it, meaning you can check my availability without having to ask me. My calendar is typically treated as first-come, first-served and it isn’t uncommon for me to reply ‘No’ if the invite overlaps with an existing event. Prioritization can occur, but only done so with a conversation expressing need rather than an assumption or expectation.

Time is finite, and I try and be respectful of other’s. The capability exists to mark an individual as ‘Optional’ indicating their attendance is not required. I grealy appreciate leveraging this functionality. It’s useful in a few of ways, 1) it allows me to prioritize with overlapping events should they exist, 2) it creates an opportunity for me to bow out should I be low on spoons and 3) it more clearly indicates whether the person inviting me feels I could bring any value to the meeting. If I’m marked as optional but I don’t feel like I have anything to contribute, I may decline, but if I am marked as optional, and feel like I can bring value or the outcome of that meeting is important to me, I will attend.

The max length of a meeting is 50 minutes. If you can’t come to a decision or reach your goal in that time, a meeting is premature. Meetings should have clear goals or outcomes defined in its agenda. The agenda provides another mechanism that allows a person to judge whether they would have anything of value to contribute to the meeting.

• Early Mornings.
• Late evenings.
• Without distractions.

I’ve always been an early riser so it’s not uncommon for me to wake up well before the business day, sit down and knock things out. I can often get more done in the 2 hours leading up to the sun coming up than I can for the remainder of the day. More so lately, I’ve become a bit of a night owl, so similarly, it’s not uncommon for me to come in after the business day and knock things out without distractions.

Speaking of distractions, I’m not sure what to attribute it to, but I’ve found it more and more difficult to focus and concentrate with the various tools seeking to take and keep our attention. Depending on the circumstances, it’s not uncommon for me to close e-mail, and Slack to allow me to focus. There may be days I simply give up trying to do anything during the business day with the intent of coming back later or coming in early the next morning to do the things that I need to do.

In a perfect world, I’d love to work in a more collaborative environment, splitting the work up leveraging each other’s strengths and interests, bouncing ideas off one another. But we don’t live in a perfect world.

Don’t DM me asking me if you can ask me a question, that in itself is a question, simply as the question. I do lean towards “Slack is async” and may not reply immediately intentionally. If you need an immediate response, you probably shouldn’t use written communication or you should be clear with your need or expectation in your initial message.

• More often than I’d like, poorly.
• Direct.
• Very literal.
• Length varies by mood, spoons or filter.
• Written rather than audible.
• If we’re not on the same page inside 5 minutes, let’s hop on a Zoom and get there.

Communication is hard for me. It is not uncommon in certain situations that I simply shut down. This may be perceived in a way that it is not intended. I’m not entirely sure why this exists, self-preservation, fear, I don’t know. My communication style leans towards direct, often described as lacking tact. Words are hard. Words matter. I try and choose the correct words, but sometimes fumble. Anything short of direct in my experience leads to interpretation and that is sometimes interpreted incorrectly which results in misunderstandings which can lead to uncomfortableness or uncertainty. Being direct, being intentional with my words leaves no room for interpretation.

This directness correlates to me being very literal, or perhaps it’s me being very literal that leads to my directness. I don’t know, the sun isn’t up yet. But this is a long way of saying, I mean what I say. I despise passive aggressiveness, I can’t beat around the bush, I’m not interested in coming at something sideways. I’d rather approach it head-on. Being literal does have its pitfalls. When we know each other better, ask me about my “Netflix and Chill” experience (It’s safe for work!).

What’s important: It’s not uncommon for me to say something and for someone to internalize it as “Barry thinks I’m an idiot” or “Barry thinks I’m stupid”. No I don’t. I wish this didn’t happen, but I can’t control how others react. Because of my directness, if I thought you were either of those things, I would tell you directly, “You’re an idiot”. I would leave no room for doubt or uncertainty. So, if I say something and you internalize as anything other than exactly what I said, that’s a you problem. This isn’t meant to dismiss your feelings. Your feelings are yours and they are valid. If you need me to change the way I communicate, let’s have a conversation. I’m happy to adjust as necessary. What’s important to me is that folks feel comfortable and safe.

• Positive

  • In private.
  • In written format.

• Negative

  • Direct.
  • In private.
  • In written format with option for Video/Voice.

Attention makes me uncomfortable, so positive feedback in public makes me really uncomfortable. While I appreciate a direct message saying “Thanks!” or anything else resembling recognition, I don’t need it. I’ve never been the type. It’s always felt strange to me that someone says “Nice Job!” or “Great idea!”. I know. I don’t do shitty work or have bad ideas. I often joke about getting a cookie, but that’s the fat kid in me. Don’t take this in any way that ends up with you sending me baked goods. No food!

I’m human, I’m going to make mistakes. I want to know when I do. While I never like to make them, I embrace them because I believe making mistakes gives us an opportunity to learn. And the geek in me loves to learn. It is not uncommon for me to miss social cues. My direct communication style often comes off as combative or confrontational, it is almost always neither. But this may make someone feel like they can’t provide feedback or are worried that feedback won’t be well received. Providing it in written format creates a space that allows me to read it, sit with it, process it. I will mostly certainly reply. In really muddy situations, it’s been my experience hopping on video leads to a quicker solution or understanding and removes a lot of the nuance and uncertainty that exists in written communication. In the end, what matters the most to me is the person giving feedback is comfortable and safe in doing so. That may sound strange, but more than anything in this world is I don’t want to be an asshole. Snarky? Yes. Sarcastic? Yes. Mean? Never.

• Monkey see, monkey do.
• Watch one. Do one. Teach one.
• Crawl, walk, run.

I’m a visual learner. More of the monkey see, monkey do and less of the current generation’s obsession with popular social media platforms. When I’m learning something new for the first time, I simply like to interact with it. Experiment. “What if I do this?” or “What happens if I do this?”. It’s not uncommon for me to interact with a GUI first then jump to code. It allows me to correlate the things I’ve seen in the GUI to the code I’m writing.

Crawl, walk, run is something I heard a while back. An iterative approach to a solution. Crawl is rudimentary, figuring something out initially. Unsteady, don’t know all the things. Walk is you have greater familiarity with it, more comfortable, picking up the pace. Run is almost like second nature. With your eyes closed. More confident, more certainty. Move much quicker, iterate more quickly.

A coworker once said “Watch One. Do One. Teach One.”, I really like this and it stuck with me ever since.

My brain is like a sponge. As I’ve gotten older it isn’t as good as it once was, but I still have a tendency of seemingly “being everywhere all at once”. I don’t understand it. I used to have near perfect recall, but that’s faded severely. There are good days though, but more so lately, I like to rely on referring back to documentation or notes rather than trying to recall anything. It’s easier and less exhausting.

• Humor.
• Progress over perfection.
• Action over inaction.
• Pull request over a meeting.
• Leaving things better than the way I found them.

I often introduce myself as “a troll who does computer things”. I feel like I have to add the caveat “the ‘jester’ kind, not the ‘Reddit red-pill’ kind of troll. I. Like. Humor. My humor varies from snarky, sarcastic to dark. as. fuck. I try and keep the dark humor to a minimum. Laughing is great, but the humor or comedy I enjoy the most is the kind that makes you think or raises awareness where it may not have existed. George Carlin, Robin Williams, Chris Farley are at the top of the list.

None of that feels like work things, so with regards to work. Actions speak louder than words, it doesn’t matter what you say, what you do tells all. I prefer action over inaction. I’m of the opinion that progress is born in action not process or policies. I would rather see a pull request as a means of communicating an idea or proposing a change rather than a meeting or a ticket to later be refined, prioriritzed and lost in the ether.

I’ve often been accused of seeking or demanding perfection. I don’t. Because perfection doesn’t exist, but I do believe there is on occasion an opportunity for incremental improvements. Which is why I typically try and leave things better than the way I found them. This could be as simple as formatting a list, spelling and/or grammar on an existing doc. Anything is better than nothing, but there are times when the situation doesn’t allow for this. That’s ok. Get it next time.

• Liars.
• Bullies/Assholes.
• Repeating myself more than twice.
• Doing things more than once.
• Inefficiency.
• Continuing to do things because “that’s how we’ve always done them”.
• Telling me all the things that are wrong without a solution, or even worse, without a pull request fixing them.
• Meetings about meetings.
• Process in the way of progress.

I don’t know why or when, but it feels like I’ve always struggled to do something I’ve done before a second time. In some situations, I simply can’t, something inside of me won’t let me. I’m ok with this, others often aren’t. What this means, I’d rather do it right the first time, rather than “good enough for now” only to eventually come back and do it right later. Along these same lines, I often say, I’m allergic to “because that’s how we’ve always done it”. It’s not a good enough reason to keep doing it or to not change the way things are being done going forward. I think this all ties into efficiency or, in these examples, ineffiency. Like I say above, time is finite, so in an effort to not waste it, I choose to be as efficient as possible with my time and effort.

What I will do more than once is explain something a second time. If I explained something and you don’t understand, I am more than happy to try and explain it in another way. I don’t see it as a shortcoming on your part that you don’t understand it, rather a shortcoming on my part for not having explained it well enough. But if I’ve explained it a second time and it’s still not clicking, need to figure something else out. Maybe it is a you problem…JK. Or am I? Ok. This is the exhaustion seeping through.

Speaking of efficiency, I’m really good at my job and that means that I can often do things in less time than it takes to create a ticket, especially less time to create a ticket, refine the ticket, prioritize the ticket and follow it through an agile lifecycle. And if the level of effort is less than what I just described, I’m simply going to do the thing. I might create a ticket to account for my time, but only after I’ve done the thing. Along these same lines, if we spend more time talking about how to solve a problem than the actual amount of time necessary to fix the problem, we’re doing it wrong. And because I can, it’s not uncommon for me while people are talking about doing something, I simply do it. And the conversation is quickly drawn to a close because the thing is done. This is process in the way of progress.

Speaking of doing the thing, there is a common pattern in our industry, perhaps it exists in others, but more often than not someone will come along and highlight all the things they think are wrong. Like they’re telling me shit I don’t already know. In the spirit of the ‘action over inaction’ from above, don’t tell me shit I already know, submit a pull request fixing it. Because I’m tired and feeling a bit snarky, “Pull Request or STFU!”.