Honestly, we just sat down and figured out the values that really bonded us: values that we deeply shared, not merely aspired to. There are some values in there that are subtler than they look -- but that the three of us hold very deeply...

Thank you. Another follow-up if you don't mind: have you and the others considering ranking Oxide's values separately, and then coming together to determine their hierarchy? It would help a candidate to know which values are more deeply shared, equally shared, or less shared by their own leaders.

Gitlab describes this concept here: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/values/#hierarchy

That's a great question, but honestly, we deeply share all of them -- so much so that it's very hard to rank them. And not because each is unequivocally good! Indeed, each of these values can be taken to excess and must be held on tension by the others. So it's hard to imagine any of them taken away -- or valued to the exclusion of the others. (With my apologies for the profoundly unhelpful answer!)