--- title: Tim Glaser's README sidebar: Handbook showTitle: true --- This guide might be helpful in working with me. ## Bio I've been coding since I've been 11, which isn't as long ago as I'd like it to be. Someone first paid me to write code when I was 13 (though I'm sure they regretted it) and someone else gainfully employed me when I was 16. Originally from the Netherlands, though I quickly moved to London (I do not generally enjoy nice weather) where I joined Arachnys and shortly met James Hawkins. I went from being a software engineer, to product manager, to "leading" an R&D team, which consisted of just me. After four years I thought it was time to go do something else and had lined up a new job. Roughly 37 seconds after it was announced James wanted to "grab a beer." While plying me with alcohol, he convinced me to give up this fancy new job and instead start a startup with him. In my 'spare' time, I fall down snowy mountains, wrestle in the mud over an egg-shaped ball and watch a lot of Bondi beach in order to perfect my Australian accent. ## Areas of responsibility - Build the engineering team - Make sure we move fast - Make sure the engineering team has all the context it needs - Make sure the engineering team is happy - Make sure we're building in the right direction - Sounding board to James Hawkins (CEO) ## Quirks - I come out with opinions quickly and strongly. They are actually weakly held so please push back when you disagree, I'll take it well. - I will likely talk way too much. Please just interject/talk over me. - A lot of what I say sounds like a definitive statement ("this is what we're going to do") when I actually mean "here's something we could do". - I'm easily distracted in meetings and can come across as disinterested. It's something I'm working on but if you notice I'm drifting off please mention it. - Weekends are holy to me and I'll almost never work on a weekend (and don't expect anyone else to!). I also don't like to have meetings after ~8pm my time, or before 10-11am. - Please don't message me "hey" and then spend 3 minutes typing your question. Adding those two together is fine. - I like my meetings clustered together. - I can be too frugal with company money. ## What I value - Ownership. Please don't wait for me to give the go-ahead. Bias over action. - People who get things done without me having to chase. I love it if we mention something should get done and there's a PR for it the next day. - Speed. It's much easier to get things right if you take more shots at goal. Let's just get something up and iterate on it. - Receiving feedback. Please give me a ton of feedback, I still have a huge amount to go and will only improve if I get feedback. - When I give feedback, I'd appreciate if you consider it first before defending yourself. I may have gotten it wrong and feel free to push back, but I don't like it when people start defending themselves straight away. - I'm not a big fan of meetings. Please write your thoughts up in a GitHub issue/PR first. We can always have a meeting after that which will likely be more productive. - I like short, to the point writing. Use short words, bullet points and screenshots. - Directness. If you don't like something please just say so. ## How I can help you - I can help you figure out how to build something in 1/2 the time you think it should take - I can help you figure out what you should be working on - I can help you figure out what to do in your career - I can help be a rubber duck - I can help bounce ideas around ## How you can help me - Come to 1:1s with an agenda and clear things I can help with - Give me feedback - Bring up problems, don't hide them. As a startup we'll always have a million problems, it's our job to surface those and fix the important ones. ## Nomading I currently don't have a fixed address, and tend to move places every 2-3 months. If I remember to update it, [you can see where I am and where I'm going here](https://nomadlist.com/@timgl). I'd love to meet up with anyone if it's within a reasonable distance (and sometimes even if it's not). Would love for you to reach out and organise something.