# Ethos <div class="pills-container"> <span class="pill">Last Updated: May 3, 2025</span> </div> This page used to be an article on my working norms and expectations, but I realized it made sense for me to write [an ethos page, as my good friend Fiyel did](https://www.fiyelimmanuel.online/), since I work with diverse teams quite frequently. This page is most useful for my current and future collaborators. > [!info] If you're hiring or looking to collaborate > I'm open to roles or projects that need principled thinking, clear execution, and comfort with complexity. This could include product and strategy, research, or community-building work. ## The 7 things to know about me 1. **I work best with close guidance at the start, then with autonomy afterward.** Early immersion matters to me so I can calibrate my goals and align with the bigger vision. Once the direction is clear to me, I operate well in high-trust collaborative environments, even asynchronously. 2. **[I think directionally.](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uwmFSaDMprsFkpWet/explore-more-a-bag-of-tricks-to-keep-your-life-on-the-rails)** I need to understand the "why" before the "how." I tend to stress-test assumptions and explore [counterfactuals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfactual_thinking) before settling on an intervention. I like to play [Devil's advocate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_advocate) to ensure that something is worth pursuing in the first place. 3. **I like being surrounded by sharp and mission-driven people.** I work best in environments where people care deeply about their work and their epistemic. 4. **I appreciate direct and no-fluff conversations.** I take honest feedback, especially when well-reasoned, as a sign of care. Do not take care of my feelings for me, that's my job. 5. **I think best in conversation.** If we're blocked, we should hop on a call and map it out live. If we're working asynchronously, let's think through the problem in a Google Doc. 6. **I stagnate in low-trust environments.** If I feel like I have to posture and second-guess people's real incentives, it drains me. I work best with people who are direct and do not weaponize ambiguity. 7. **I think sacrificing integrity for optics is a form of failure.** I care about making differential progress in the work I do. I believe that [once a metric becomes the goal, it ceases to be a good metric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law). ## Why I build I build because I'm drawn messy but meaningful problems. I think these are areas where better tools can actually change how people live or think. I care about infrastructure. I believe that the invisible (and often, unsexy) things are the most important part of a system, since these processes are key to further flourishing. I want to make nontrivial progress on things that matter. I want the things I build to be useful over time and to hold up under stress. ## How I work best - I'm currently based in Metro Manila (UTC+8), though I travel a lot. - I typically work afternoons and evenings. - I prefer async for updates and sync for thinking, but I adjust depending on what works for my collaborator. - I write and plan in Google Docs. - I like seeing the full context, not just tasks. - I build to stress-test systems in the real world. I care about fast iterations, real users, and whether tools hold up under live constraints. ## My anti-values There are patterns I generally avoid because they hinder my growth. I listed them here because these are my non-negotiables. - I feel stagnant in teams that never give honest feedback. - I don't fit well in environments where "alignment" means agreement, not depth. These are environments where echo chambers or groupthink is the norm. - I'm wary of "impact-washing" or people who claim to work on impactful problems but are really optimizing for personal leverage. ## Mistakes I've made I believe in learning in public. That's why I keep a changelog of the mistakes I've made in the past, so I can improve in the future. - I often take on more than I can chew. But this sometimes leads to late nights or quiet burnout. The people I wanted to help in the first place end up under-supported anyway. I've since learned that saying yes to everything eventually means that I'm not showing up well for anything. - I move quickly when I'm clear on my direction and that makes me effective. But there were times I sprinted ahead thinking that everyone in my team was on the same page. I later realized that others did not share my mental models or priorities, and they ended up feeling confused and upset. I've since learned that clarity takes more time than I think, especially when I'm working with a group. - I gravitate towards complex problems and deep thinking. But there have been times where I spent too long polishing ideas that were fascinating but not directionally useful. I've since learned that insight without traction is still one form of a drift. - I care deeply about quality in almost everything I do. Though sometimes, the pursuit of perfection (or precision) has slowed me down more times than it should've. I've learned that momentum often matters more than getting it "right" the first time. - In the past, I've stuck around in projects where there wasn't real alignment and just hoped that clarity would emerge in time. But I realized that early misalignment is rarely temporary and trust requires naming it.