The user manual

Today I read an interesting idea online: the personal user manual.

Whenever you work in a dynamic environment where colleagues and collaborators may fluctuate over time (for instance academia), it can sometimes be quite difficult to gauge the people at the other side of the table. Academics can be pretty peculiar personalities, and not the easiest people to work with either. Often there’s not a lot of time to get to know each other before you start working together. With the Home Office situation now being so common in all of our lives, it has not gotten much better to be a good judge of character. There are many subtle responses and forms of non-verbal communication that are just very tough to pick up in video calls.

With this in mind. I thought the idea of a personal user manual could be a quick and dirty solution to introduce yourself to people that you may meet for the first time. Perhaps even for those that you have known for years. Dos and don’ts? Introvert or extravert? Strengths, weaknesses. What’s essential to know and what can people expect from you?

I will create a personal user manual for this page soon!