I'm Drew. This is my personal readme. It's documentation that should help you get to know me and jump start our working relationship. If your experience with me is different or something is missing from this document, feel free to open an issue.
I live in Portland, Oregon with my partner, Kristen, and our daughters, Adley and Willow. I'm a vegetarian, an avid reader, and deeply curious about the world and the people in it. My preferred pronouns are he / they.
Over the last 15 years, I've taken on various roles in technology including IT administration, database and systems administration, front end and full stack development, site reliability engineering, and leadership. You can learn more about my professional experience on my LinkedIn profile.
Making mistakes is the best way to learn. I often choose the most difficult path, as it presents the most opportunities for me to fail. I believe people reach their true potential by being challenged in a supportive environment, and learning lessons from their mistakes.
Trust is crucial, and it has to be earned. People work best together when they trust one another. I work hard to gain the trust of my team by seeking to understand, following through on commitments, and trying to do what’s right.
There is always room for improvement. Every person I have ever worked with has taught me something. No matter how comfortable I am with a particular subject, there is always something I can do to grow and improve.
Clifton Strengths: Input, Responsibility, Learner, Restorative, Harmony
Strengths listed here come from feedback and performance evaluations I have received in the past.
- I care deeply about the people I work with.
- I work hard to earn and develop trust with those around me.
- I have strong communication skills.
- I am willing to admit when I am wrong.
I am a problem solver. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it’s not. If you’re not looking for solutions and simply need to be heard, please to let me know. While I’m aware of my tendency to identify a fix, I don’t always catch myself in time.
I need to understand things. Understanding the reasoning and strategy behind projects and high-priority tasks is a requirement for me. I have a hard time getting my bearings if I don’t have a strong mental model for the big picture. Similarly, I ask a lot of questions about technical systems so that I can represent problems and priorities in those systems fully.
I don’t do well with subtleties. Coded messages often fly right over my head so it’s best to be upfront about what you need and what you’re thinking. I’ll do my best to ask for clarification when I feel I’m missing something important.
The following books have had an outsized influence on my thinking and methodologies.
- Nonviolet Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
- Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt
- Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows
- Be Here Now by Ram Dass
You are welcome to contact me any time over Slack or email. I keep my notification settings and status up to date to make sure that I can disconnect from non-urgent work communication when I need to. I try to minimize the amount of disruptive messages I send you, and I don’t expect you to respond to my non-urgent messages outside of your normal working hours.
If you have an emergency, you can call or text me at the phone number listed in my Slack profile and email signature.
If you want to chat face-to-face, most of my calendar is publicly visible and you’re welcome to schedule time with me whenever you need. If it’s important and our schedules don’t line up, let me know so I can make time.
I appreciate direct feedback. I’m most interested in constructive feedback I can use to improve, but I welcome positive feedback as well. If you have concerns about providing me with feedback directly, feel free to submit it annonymously via Admonymous. I’m committed to receiving feedback graciously, and to taking action on constructive feedback when appropriate.
Thanks for reading! Please send your feedback my way.