Sure. I've written to an old employer and to my Boy Scout troop leader to thank them.
I wrote actual physical letters, though. I think it's just more personal.
Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
61–70 of 143 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#62Expressing gratitude is always a good idea. The way you do reminds me of what we call "outreach" nowadays.
Reaching out to people by mail usually works the way you describe it.
The only way most people do it wrong is that they don't say "thank you" first but they want something from you.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#63I just emailed linus torvalds after reading this thread. Thanks for remind me.
I emailed him once too, he never replied.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#64Unfortunately my Ph.D. supervisor died before I was able to tell him how profoundly his views and criticisms impacted my intellectual life. He was one of those hypercritical people for whom "it's okay" meant more or less the highest praise, both for himself and others. This made him a number of enemies, I believe, and for me, as a Ph.D. student, that attitude could be kind of demotivating at times. However, in retros…
I think you’ve summed up the sentiment of the entire thread in two words:
don't wait
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#65If you don't phrase your letter weirdly, making sure you to keep focused on conveying your thanks and relating how they impacted your life, I'm sure they'd appreciate it! Just put yourself in their shoes, if you received a letter of genuine gratitude I'm sure you'd appreciate it as well, like most people would.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the lesson in this saying?
That it's easy to 'like' someone based on their public persona - what the media reports, how they come across in blog posts, or how they seem on social media. But in reality, some people are nothing like what their public image suggests (i.e. they might actually be fairly unfriendly, negative, unwelcoming etc). Of course, that 'hero' might also just be having a bad day or was feeling tired when their fans approached…
Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#67I sometimes email open source authors to thank them for their efforts, I don't ask for anything, just an email to show gratification. I'm more inclined to go to this effort for the projects that are highly useful but not popular since as an author of such a project it is possible to have doubts if benefits from it when you go a long time with no outside feedback at all. The few times people have contacted us with pro…
Exactly, the small projects could be indispensible for someone's daily workflow.
A good example is Karabiner-Elements, a keyboard remapper for macOS. The author and his team has been making sure that it works with every yearly update.
I've sent him a thank-you note, and now follow up yearly with a donation.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#68Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#69Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#70>>> kind of feel like a bit of a weirdo
So what? Be the weirdo. The world needs more weirdos to combat the creeping Normie Conquest ;)
There's nothing weird about sending cold emails to give props. I've been doing it all my life. And now I find myself on the receiving end. And it always feels heart-warming. Especially if I can point someone to a resource or facilitate an introduction. This is how the world works. Random walk diffusion.
Now I am currently at the stage where I am trying to make the leap from the single one-on-one personal email. To the mass harvested email list in the 500-1000 user range. I still want to make it personal. I have targeted specific fields of interest. For example, "AI/ML researchers". And I know I am crafting content that will delight and enlighten. But its hard to pull the trigger on something I personally find so detestable, unsolicited noise.
Yet, I still think this is one of the best modes for seeding initial distribution...