A Thinker

I'm a thinker. I delve deep into topics and take the time to reflect.

I enjoy debating and playing devil's advocate to advance a discussion. I'm comfortable with "gray".

I can operate like an “individual contributor” on hard problems, but I get the most fulfillment from working with teammates. I work hard to foster team environments.

I crave greatness and excellence, but I'm motivated more by craft and mastery than competition. I prefer games where everyone can win.

I have high expectations for myself and those around me, but I work hard to be compassionate, understanding, and forgiving.

I believe in people's potential. As I've stretched myself, I've found myself more capable. I've seen the same in others.

Personality Tests Say

🍕 Pizza, too. Will travel with a laptop for pizza

Self-Development

To continually grow, advance, improve in knowledge, ability, character

Authenticity

To be authentic, genuine, and real. To know who one is and to be true to oneself

Contribution

To contribute, help, assist, or make a positive difference to others

Curiosity

To be interested and open-minded. To keep exploring and discovering

I pride myself on being a teammate. I believe I’m just as good a follower as I am a leader.

There are a handful of behaviors that I don’t have the patience for. They are:

How Best to Communicate With Me

Think it through in advance. If you don’t have time to think it through, ask me to help you think it through.

If I say something that you disagree with or that pisses you off - tell me! I want to know.

I'm not "always available," but a Slack message or an email works. Assume I will not respond promptly.

How to Help Me

Tell me what I need to know, not what you think I want to hear. Find the holes in my arguments and ideas. Ask me when it'll be done, and hold me accountable. Ask me to do the same for you. Sometimes I can come off as cranky, and that shows up as trying to move too fast through agenda items, less inflection in my tone, etc. Make me laugh and I'll snap out of it.

What People Misunderstand About Me

“Ry doesn’t care about the logistical details”

I care about logistics, but I’m not always good at them. I’m particularly bad at event planning.

“He’s so serious”

I can be. I also LOVE playful, absurd, and dark humor. I try not to bring sarcasm to work.

“Ry doesn’t like meetings”

I love meetings because I love collaboration. I prefer long ones where a group can delve into a topic and make meaningful progress. I don’t like bad meetings. Also, I’m introverted, and meetings drain me.