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What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

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Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#11

Post by flir »

jasoncartwright wrote: post #2

Oh no, not this again. I'm not sure I could muster the arrogance to write such a document about myself... and then expect people to read it. The suggested examples of what the document could contain are bizarre and yet also weirdly simple & obvious... "I am a sponge. I’ll take more content earlier rather than a formal presentation" "Please give me the bad news before I hear it from somewhere else" "Be direct. Tell me…

From the title, I expected "here's all the stuff I need to run my life in one handy place" - passwords, bank account details, when my car insurance is due, etc etc. Part calendar, part password safe.

This was... not that.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#12

Post by p_l »

ralferoo wrote: post #5
jasoncartwright wrote: post #2

Oh no, not this again. I'm not sure I could muster the arrogance to write such a document about myself... and then expect people to read it. The suggested examples of what the document could contain are bizarre and yet also weirdly simple & obvious... "I am a sponge. I’ll take more content earlier rather than a formal presentation" "Please give me the bad news before I hear it from somewhere else" "Be direct. Tell me…

"I'd rather get on with some actual work than create a stupid document about me to pander to management's latest whim-du-jour." I guess it hasn't occurred to them that most introverts would hate having to write about themselves in this way, and a reasonable subset wouldn't be interested in reading what the extroverts have to say about themselves either. A far better approach is to not have any preconceived ideas abou…

> A far better approach is to not have any preconceived ideas about your colleagues, and discover how you interact best as and when the need arises. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach for how different people should interact with an individual.

Sounds very extroverted and without any issues in bothering other people /s

Honestly, a humble "README" for the person is something I'm coming to appreciate more and more, at least so long as it's humble and not condescending to people.

Especially as someone both introverted, and as it turns out, on the autistic spectrum (nice bomb to find out after 34 years :V)

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#13

Post by beAbU »

jasoncartwright wrote: post #2

Oh no, not this again. I'm not sure I could muster the arrogance to write such a document about myself... and then expect people to read it. The suggested examples of what the document could contain are bizarre and yet also weirdly simple & obvious... "I am a sponge. I’ll take more content earlier rather than a formal presentation" "Please give me the bad news before I hear it from somewhere else" "Be direct. Tell me…

Yeah, those 3 bullets will better serve as part of a team charter, rather than one individual's preferences in contrast to how everyone else communicates.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#14

Post by flir »

number6 wrote: post #6

So you expect persons to write a personal user manual. Have you seen what happens to normal docs? And who has this complete picture of oneself that is not obscured by the lies that we tell about ourselves? The self-deception and the imposter syndromes that we foster? I guess these manuals will be outdated sooner than the regular docs - and if your staff has time on their hands to write and maintain them, you might be…

Suspect the real purpose is a form of personal marketing. It's going to end up chock full of resume-style "I am a bright and receptive person, able to communicate well with people at all levels. I use my own initiative and I am flexible in my approach to work duties" boilerplate.

Anyone who provides useful information, eg "I'm at my best in the mornings, try to catch me then, oh and dumb down the technical language a bit" is, frankly, a moron.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#15

Post by snmx999 »

It's absurd to expect people to adjust their communication timing based on each contact's preferences, when the recipient can simply adjust their communication devices to block and filter messages/calls according to their preferences. That way each person only has to do the work once, compared to having to remember each of maybe dozens or hundreds of people's preferences.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#17

Post by verisimi »

I hate all this nonsense. Just the idea that culture is a thing to be created, as if people are blank templates to be filled up on a mediocre manager's whim.

However - content aside - I actually liked the page layout. I liked the clickable, table of contents thing on the side, that disappears if the page is narrow. This sort of presentation of text is really nice, imo.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#18

Post by p_l »

beAbU wrote: post #13
jasoncartwright wrote: post #2

Oh no, not this again. I'm not sure I could muster the arrogance to write such a document about myself... and then expect people to read it. The suggested examples of what the document could contain are bizarre and yet also weirdly simple & obvious... "I am a sponge. I’ll take more content earlier rather than a formal presentation" "Please give me the bad news before I hear it from somewhere else" "Be direct. Tell me…

Yeah, those 3 bullets will better serve as part of a team charter, rather than one individual's preferences in contrast to how everyone else communicates.

Unfortunately, driving and enforcing ("softly" or "hard") a team charter is harder than publishing a short README telling how to best communicate with you.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#19

Post by p_l »

flir wrote: post #14
number6 wrote: post #6

So you expect persons to write a personal user manual. Have you seen what happens to normal docs? And who has this complete picture of oneself that is not obscured by the lies that we tell about ourselves? The self-deception and the imposter syndromes that we foster? I guess these manuals will be outdated sooner than the regular docs - and if your staff has time on their hands to write and maintain them, you might be…

Suspect the real purpose is a form of personal marketing. It's going to end up chock full of resume-style "I am a bright and receptive person, able to communicate well with people at all levels. I use my own initiative and I am flexible in my approach to work duties" boilerplate. Anyone who provides useful information, eg "I'm at my best in the mornings, try to catch me then, oh and dumb down the technical language a…

Why is anyone honestly providing useful information a moron?

At least if the "PUM" is in private context.

Re: What Is a Personal User Manual? (2022)

#20

Post by sokoloff »

snmx999 wrote: post #15

It's absurd to expect people to adjust their communication timing based on each contact's preferences, when the recipient can simply adjust their communication devices to block and filter messages/calls according to their preferences. That way each person only has to do the work once, compared to having to remember each of maybe dozens or hundreds of people's preferences.

Further, my team’s mail list spans people working from IST through PT (13.5 hours). If everyone works a local 9-5*, there is no moment when mail to that list (or a post to our slack channel) won’t hit someone “off hours”.

* Or anything even close to that…

Throttle on input.

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