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Hi there 👋!

I'm Daniel. If you read this, it might well be that I sent you the link so you can learn more about working with me. Or you might just have stumbled upon this page, in which case: Nice to meet you! :)

This is my Personal User Manual. If your experience with me is different or you think there is a way this document might be more useful, feel free to open an issue or suggest a change.

I'm a Berlin based founder, manager and developer. I have a faible for technology, data and self management. Currently my focus is on making it easy to solve business problems with TypeScript based web technology.

You can find my professional exploits on my LinkedIn profile.

It is easiest to reach me via email, but you can also follow me on Twitter. From time to time I also write blog articles.

• No one is intrinsically bad. Therefore I always believe in good intentions until proven otherwise.
• Caring about each other makes life better for everyone. Therefore I try to take care of everyone in my sphere of influence.
• We should all in principle follow the same rules and therefore I have a hard time with rules that don’t apply universally.
• Working in a group where everyone gives their best is more pleasant and effective than everyone "just doing their job". This doesn't mean spending every wake hour on the job, or not having off days. It is about attitude. Therefore I try to hold everyone including myself up to the highest standards.
• Transparency and candor both make working more pleasant and effective. Therefore I like to discuss ideas openly and get feedback from others.
• Making mistakes and learning from them is an important part of life. Therefore I always look for what to learn from mistakes, never for punishing anyone involved.
• The only way to find out something is to actually try it. Therefore I am usually looking for an experiment that allows to get feedback with the least energy required. It makes sense to learn from what others have learnt to find the right experiments, but then skipping the experiment all-together is dangerous.
• Handover of work is the biggest source of waste I’ve seen at companies. Therefore I set up teams that are responsible end-to-end for customer value, and the farther end-to-end this stretches, the better.
• Especially in software development we tend to plan too much ahead. Therefore I prefer just-in-time optimization: Not too early where I don't know yet what to optimize for, but only when the optimization actually becomes necessary.

• Building and coaching teams and individuals to achieve great things while having fun.
• Meaning well and deeply caring about the people I work with.
• Helping others to be successful.
• Rapidly understanding complex problems by probing with questions and thinking through topics.
• Forcing decisions not to do things instead of wasting time on something that might not be the most effective way to go forward.

• I can be very direct. Please let me know if I am too direct. Feel free to be direct and open with me yourself to let me know.
• It can be hard to read my emotions. Sometimes this means that I don’t seem appropriately concerned, but me remaining calm does not mean that I do not care or do not take the situation seriously. If you are unsure about my emotions, feel free to just ask.
• I'm a big fan of being organised digitally. I might sometimes put too much focus on having a clean todo list, an empty inbox ("inbox zero"), or similar. If in doubt, just ask me if something really needs to be cleaned up, and I will reflect on whether there is actual merit to it or it's just my personal preference.
• Entertaining large groups of people isn't my strong suit. I prefer to meet one-on-one and in smaller groups.
• I'm especially bad at remembering things. This is one of the reasons why I prefer written communication where I can just look things up.
• Following orders can be hard for me. Specifically it is hard for me to do things without understanding the reasoning behind it, or at least why there is no time to understand that reasoning right now. This also sometimes leads me to interfere with other people's responsibilities.

I am not easily stressed and will remain calm even in situations where others might freak out. Should I ever get stressed out, the symptoms are that I withdraw and become even more silent. If you feel I no longer openly and transparently communicate, please privately tell me so I can reflect and bring back communication.

My productive times can vary by day. I tend to be more productive later in the day, though, and usually prefer not starting work before 09:00 am.

Feel free to be direct with me. I am not easily offended.

For communication I usually prefer written communication above talking as it gives you the time to optimize your message (e. g. using a top-down structure) and me the ability to understand in my own time and potentially include others into the conversation where beneficial.

I feel confident in my triaging skills. If in doubt, you can include me in written communication and I will take care of sorting out what is important for me and what is not.

If you would prefer personal communication, feel free to schedule something into my calendar. My calendar is usually well-managed.

If you need an immediate response from me, please send me an SMS or call me on the phone. Due to the nature of my work I'm trying to manage my time in larger, uninterrupted chunks where possible and might not check e. g. email or Slack for longer amounts of time.

If you don't have my phone number but think you might need it, just let me know.

My preferred pronouns are they/them, but I'm also comfortable with he/him/his.

Daniel can either be pronounced Daniel in German or Daniel in English. Bartholomae is pronounced as ˈbatolome. I don't really care though as long as I know that you are talking about me.

• I don't eat cheese, don't drink alcohol and don't drink coffee. Weird combination, huh? :)
• I try to avoid meat, or at least to buy organic, but I'm not very good at following through with this yet.
• If in doubt, Thai or Vietnamese cuisine is always fine.

You can find my professional book recommendations on Goodreads.

I once managed to forget my own first name for a couple seconds when asked to introduce myself.