Yes, I do it regularly. Depending on the relationship I might send a handwritten card or include a small gift if I know the recipient well. From responses I get I know that it means a lot to have your investment in another person recognised.
Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#22Yes, for example I've written emails to OSS authors - particularly those of small plugins published as an individual. I've also written to authors of blog posts that have helped me in some way.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#23KEEP IT UP!
Just 2 weeks ago I have sent an expensive whisky bottle to my highschool Computer Science teacher. He let me manage the school website and that trust has had some influence on my career.
Not many people do this and you are really putting a smile on those people faces. I don't want it to sound transactional, but apart from being nice, this is also introducing serendipity and connections into your life. Literally no downside
AJ Jacobs "Thanks a Thousand" is a book based on this gratitude. A good start is his episode on the Tim Ferriss show: https://tim.blog/2018/11/05/a-j-jacobs/
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#24No. It would come off as weird or creepy just to email someone out of the blue. Also, email is impersonal and seems like you are trying to solicit something from them.
If someone had a positive impact on you just tell them when you meet in person. If you are really intent on contacting them for whatever reason, then a personal letter might be better.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#25This is wholesome. It's so easy to give negative feedback and feels like it'll be taken as "creepy" or with some other intention to give positive feedback. FWIW I've been making a concerted effort to give out much more positive feedback, since I had a psychiatrist who said "it takes roughly 9x the positivity to offset 1x of negativity" (or something to that effect), "So make sure when you feel something positive that…
Engineers, entrepreneurs and other tech workers are praised for finding problems and solving - throuught all of our lives.
Guess what that makes us? Really good at spotting problems.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#26I did this once and ended up feeling sorry I did.
I looked up and thanked a programmer who came after school for a computer club. He helped a lot in getting me into computing.
I got the feeling he was thinking I was after a job. I wasn't - I was employed as a dev. It was purely because I was grateful.
Many people are suspicious of those that come out of the woodwork to contact them.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#27I did this once and ended up feeling sorry I did. I looked up and thanked a programmer who came after school for a computer club. He helped a lot in getting me into computing. I got the feeling he was thinking I was after a job. I wasn't - I was employed as a dev. It was purely because I was grateful. Many people are suspicious of those that come out of the woodwork to contact them.
Depends on the culture I guess.
However this is a good point, thanks! I believe it is a good idea to slightly mention in the email that you are not looking after anything.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#28I have written a couple of authors of libraries I use and cherish a lot. Also can report a reply rate of 100%.
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#29I did this once and ended up feeling sorry I did. I looked up and thanked a programmer who came after school for a computer club. He helped a lot in getting me into computing. I got the feeling he was thinking I was after a job. I wasn't - I was employed as a dev. It was purely because I was grateful. Many people are suspicious of those that come out of the woodwork to contact them.
I bet he was happy to have received it after he cooled off, even though he never said so. Perhaps you will receive a thankful email from him some day!
Re: Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?
#30I 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 projects I've worked on has been good for morale. Sometimes this can lead to other unexpected good things like collaborations later on.