This is a guide to Daniel Thomason – a very quick tour of my personality and quirks. The aim is to help friends and colleagues understand me better, to make our relationships easier and more fun and productive :) If you have questions or suggestions for changes, feel free to get in touch (or submit a pull request!).
Life is too short to be overly serious. I like to work hard and commit fully to whatever I’m doing, but I’ll be cracking jokes as I do so. Laughter is the best medicine and the only rational response to a bizarre, indifferent universe.
Most people are inherently good. If something has gone wrong or someone has offended me, it’s probably due to a quirk of the situation rather than an attribute of the person. Almost everyone wants the same thing: a happy, fulfilling life.
My fundamental moral principle: make things better where you can, leave the world better than you found it, be better today than you were tomorrow – incremental improvements are the key!
- In the morning
- In a peaceful environment (I know this is a funny contrast with how loud I am)
- When I’m trying to solve a challenging problem with other people I trust and admire
- Taking a doing approach to learning: letting me tinker and play with something will typically be the fastest route to me understanding it
- In an orderly physical space – my desk (and virtual desktop!) will typically be as neat as I can make it. This comes from my belief that in order to embrace chaos in some domains, you need to have a foundation of order and structure in others
Negativity. Identifying problems is fine and important, I just react better to this being part of a process towards finding a solution rather than an exercise in complaining.
People on their phones or laptops in meetings.
Being told what to do without justification or consultation. If I know why, I’ll be more motivated to work on the task, and I might find a better way to accomplish the desired outcome. This also goes for teams I work with: I’ll try to always provide context and justification rather than just ‘what’ to deliver.
Communication: DMs for quick or urgent topics, email for larger topics requiring thought, face-to-face for anything sensitive or requiring discussion or shared brainstorming. In messaging software, I won't be offended if you go straight to asking me a question without any small talk or greeting – efficiency is the name of the game here. You can expect the same from me if we interact frequently.
I like to chat and banter a bit at the start of face-to-face meetings or video chats – build the relationship :)
I love walking meetings when possible
I thrive off information, so tell me everything
I may forget to follow up about something, so if you remind me I will be grateful
I don’t want to micro-manage people, so I will tend to err on the side of giving less context and instruction. If you need additional information, ask for it and I’ll be happy to provide!
I take the time to structure my communication to help the reader/listener understand as easily as possible, and I appreciate it when others do the same. E.g. using lists and bolded words in emails, and spending a couple of minutes to redraft any piece of communication longer than one or two sentences
Mistakes are fine and failure is a welcome price of learning; what’s not fine is being irresponsible or not caring about your work
My energy levels tend to fade in the afternoon
Volume setting seems to be permanently stuck slightly too high
Prefer to stay high-level, which means I can sometimes gloss over details
Sometimes take things personally that I shouldn't
Tell me stuff, and share what you're working on or excited about! I love information and learning new things
If I’ve offended you or do something that annoys you, schedule a 1:1 meeting and tell me – I would much rather be able to fix it than have you resent me
Introduce me to people in the fintech or product management space, or anyone you think I would get along with
I love board games, and although I’m quite competitive, my main pleasure is from seeing the game played well – so much so that I would rather another player good advice even if it is bad for me than stay silent
I founded an escape room back in Australia (Next Level Escape), which whetted my appetite for entrepreneurship – I want to start another company at some point
I can juggle! Three clubs in a normal pattern, three balls with various tricks, and four balls in a normal pattern although I am making good progress on five balls :)