Hey! I'm Chad Ostrowski! On the Internet I go by chadoh. It's not the best nickname, but we go way back, this nickname and me.
Hopefully you're reading this page to learn:
- What motivates me
- What I like and dislike from the teams I work with
- How to work well with me
If you're here for any other reasons, try these instead:
- message me on Slack (@chadoh)
- email me
- text/call/Signal/Telegram/WhatsApp me (+1 717 348 1974)
- dm me on Twitter
I'm not at all convinced that the new, locked-open version of the internet will definitively improve the world. The current internet has its pros and cons. I'm hoping to do my small bit to help steer this next one toward definitively bettering the world.
Also, I just like building things. I like interesting problems, and working with teams full of smart, motivated, experienced people that care deeply about building the right thing. I like remote work.
"You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear."
I like working in a team of peers. If I ever talk down to you or interrupt you, call me out on it. I want to get better. And if I ever feel that I'm being talked down to, I hope you don't mind if I call you out on it.
In the past, in moments when I've felt I was being treated paternalistically, I've slipped into playing the part. I've gotten bratty. I hope I'm past that phase of my life. If I ever respond with snark or sarcasm instead of constructive feedback, help me nip it in the bud.
"A story only matters, I suspect, to the extent that people in the story change."
When I encouraged you to "call me out" above, I really mean it!
Quick story:
I used to write and record music a lot, and I would sing. Terrible, off-key singing. Since I knew I sucked at singing, I felt self-conscious about having people in the room when I recorded vocals.
Choir Class in high school taught me to hold a key, but I still felt vulnerable and nervous recording vocals in front of friends. A critique of my voice felt like an attack on me, and I couldn't bear it.
I remember the moment when I got past this. When my ego detached from my singing ability, and I could have a friend in the room giving feedback after every take. My voice became an instrument, and feedback helped me tune and shape it.
Now and then, I still bump into my ego. It's always upsetting. "Oh, I guess I attached my identity to that, too. How unsavory." Help me root it out. Help me keep my identity small. Help me wield my instruments effectively.
This goes for my code and product ideas, and also my behavior as a teammate. Nothing is off-limits. You don't have to be careful with my feelings. Be blunt. I've learned to really enjoy it! If I happen to be in a bad head-space for receiving criticism that day, remind me that I said all this and I'll wait a day and think on it more before responding.
I promise to be careful with your feelings! No one grows without feedback, and I want you to grow, so I'll give you feedback. And I enjoy a direct communication style. But I understand that not everyone does, so I'll try really hard to use tact. I've been terrible at this, at moments in the past, but I think I'm decent at it now.
"I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all."
If you're not an engineer, allow me a moment to explain the concept of GitHub Pull Requests:
In his presentation GitHub for Poets, Aaron Suggs talks about teaching non-techies at Kickstarter how to use GitHub Pull Requests. They loved it. Pull Requests should probably be called Change Requests—they are a way to tell your team, "hey, I want to change things to be like Y instead of like X, and here's why." And then your teammates can comment on specific parts of your change, or debate the whole idea of the change. Pull Requests are a tool for communication, and for consensus-building.
(This consensus-building stuff brings me back to my love of egalitarianism—I love me a good consensus process!)
At a previous company, I got in trouble for spending too much time leaving feedback for my teammates on their Pull Requests. Too much! "We've got to spend less time worrying about the quality of our code, Chad."
I love working on teams that crave such in-depth reviews, where my care for quality is greeted with enthusiasm. I love working on teams where others give me similar thoughtful feedback.
The highest-functioning teams I've worked on don't just give this attention-to-detail to code. The most beautifully-architected solution is worthless if it doesn't solve a real problem. The best teams I've worked on on pay the same attention-to-detail – and use similar consensus-building processes – during product discussions. Let's figure out what people's real problems are. Let's dig into user feedback or customer requirements and find the real problem, and not just do the most obvious thing. Many minds are better than one. Let's come up with 1. the ideal solution, 2. the easiest/jankiest path forward, and 3. the reasonable compromise in between.
I always prefer long-term to short-term.
"Adults follow paths. Children explore."
Unexpected delight. Humor, poignancy, oddity. More joy and metaphor.
Expect me to be driven by the values I mentioned above. And I'll probably expect the same of you, and get confused if I don't find those same values.
I'll probably stick to my team and not interact with you much if I don't have an explicit reason to. If you wanna chat, though, I'd love to! I love meeting people and learning what motivates them. Camaraderie, solidarity, solving any sort of problems—I am here for that, and here for you.
All quotes, for some reason, taken from The Ocean at the End of the Lane