User:Tm718

"Someone who will not leave a burning building until you show them the newspaper article documenting how many people were killed by the fire."

- David Eppstein

Good day.

Thank you for taking some of your valuable Wikitime to read my Wikipedia user page.

I am not an expert in software, programming, astronomy, or any other topic on which I edit or contribute. I make no such claim(s) anywhere that I am aware of. If you find any text that can be (mis)interpreted to seem as if I make any such claim(s), then notify me immediately, and I will alter such text to be far clearer and harder to misinterpret. I am an enthusiastic autodidact, and former part-time newspaper reporter, and low-hour volunteer teacher, who can think, read, write, and edit. That is all. When I make errors, notify me, and I will fix them.

Of many things I consider very seriously, one is objectivity, or neutrality in Wikipedia nomenclature. I try very hard to be neutral. This is mostly due to my basic personality, but was also further informed and refined by my newspaper experiences. But, no one can be fully neutral in all ways, no matter how great our efforts; for some insights on this see Systemic bias.

At least two kinds of neutrality clearly exist: attitudinal and functional. We all have many biases, of many types, and these effect our thoughts and actions. Attitude biases are the easiest to counter, mostly by consciously monitoring ourselves and working to be deliberately neutral in our actions. Functional biases are much harder to counter. We all have varied strengths and weaknesses, areas of knowledge and ignorance.

Thus we work in areas we know, and perform actions we understand, and tend to perform less well outside that range. Where I do this, and accidentally harm or confuse anyone, I apologize. Tell me and I will act to improve my results.