The concept of writing a guide about yourself was first introduced by Ben Dattner in 2008 (as I found out from Humangous)
In software engineering and maanagement circles, these are also called Manager READMEs. A few examples:
- Claire Johnson
- Michael Lopp
- Gordon Wong
- Crate.io
- Micheal Heap
- Katie Wilde and also Katie Wilde’s post on Manager READMEs
- Austin Kelmore
- Lara Hogan
- Molly White
While most of these examples are in the context of managers making it easier for their reportees to get started and work better, I think it would be intersting to have such a README even if you do not have reportees. Of course, that would be a different type of document written with a different objective in mind using ideas from these manager READMEs.
Also, I wonder what would such a document look like for people in academia? It would perhaps make advisor-student interatactions a little easier and set some protocol for lab member interactions especially for large research labs
Related Note: How I work