Duck Alignment Academy

Use a decision log to record context

A decision log is a record that you leave for the future. It shares the context to save time when revisiting a past decision.

Posts

Choose your words carefully. You want people to discuss the facts, not the wording.

Posts

I’ll donate $10 for every ebook sale of my book on 8 March to Girls Who Code. For the rest of March, I’ll give $5 for every paper or ebook sale.

News

If you’re not clear about who is supposed to act, people will assume that it’s not them. Be clear so everyone knows what to expect.

Resources

Start with understanding the “why?” behind what you’re trying to measure. Then figure out the measurements, knowing they’ll be imperfect.

Posts

Your prose is not code; it will not fail because you forgot a semicolon. Prefer being understood to strict adherence to grammatical rules.

Resources

When you document how to execute a process, that ensures you’ll do it right the next time. This helps your future self and your successors.

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Acronyms can be confusing when they’re unfamiliar to your reader. Err on the side of explaining, even if you don’t think you need to.

Resources

Making someone feel heard doesn’t mean doing whatever they want; it means they feel like you’ve made a good faith effort to understand them.

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Put the important part at the beginning of your post or email. Don’t assume people will read the whole thing.

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