Communication Guidelines

A few ways to contact me

These are some general recommendations that I believe make communicating with me, at least, easier and/or more effective, including communication conventions that make me happier :D. Please note that what I prefer may not be what others prefer and shall not be treated as a general guideline for communications.

1. Send complete information. When telling me something or requesting something, please provide complete background information, knowledge required, and similar things. As a general rule-of-thumb, the explanation should usually be longer than three sentences or a few paragraphs depending on the complexity of the task at hand. This prevents back-and-forth communication along the lines of ``and now I need to know ... but you didn't tell me that so can you please give that to me'', generally defragmenting conversations which increases efficiency and comfort.
2. Be direct. As the sender, do not use polite expressions like ``you did quite well in that presentation'' when in reality, the sender believes that the presentation is not ``quite well''. Direct critique and suggestions are very welcome here—politeness is acceptable if it does not interfere with honest conveying of information.
3. Don't ask to ask.
4. Use plain text email. Both hard-wrapped and non-hard-wrapped emails are acceptable.
5. Interweave the original message with the response when replying to an email and remove irrelevant parts (i.e. greetings, closings, signatures, etc.) of the quoted original email.