Ask HN: Do you ever contact people who have had a positive impact on you?

I found it really uplifting to read so many people do it. Echo the sentiment of feeling like a weirdo when I do it. All the same, I try to keep at it, because I think nothing feels better than knowing you've made a positive difference. On the few occasions I was on the receiving end, it made me feel more elated than what any other compliment could do.

I do it, because I know my positive message has a disproportionately big impact on them. Being loved is one of the motivations of many public figures. It also feels good to say something nice.

Politicians get a lot of hate, and I'm sure positive messages have an impact for them too.

Contacting people who've had an influence on your life is the very thing of living!

Here's something I did last year, which I'll be doing again in a few weeks.

Back in high school, I had a really great math teacher. He really created excitement about the subject, and he always had extra time to teach extra stuff to us. Just a really cool guy who'd show us Monty Python videos sketches and then some interesting math problems. It was really night and day when compared to for instance what came later at university. I found myself practicing a lot of extra math for no reason. Plus of course it made actual math class a breeze.

Three of us went to do a math contest each year, and in the final year - he was retiring, we were graduating - we won the contest.

So I've arranged for the other two to fly over to me and we're going on a road trip to see him.

If you're wondering whether he's bothered by it, I think he'd say that was the whole purpose of teaching, to show young people some interesting stuff and motivate them. The guy even sees his old "kids" who are now in their early 60s. He's mid 80s.

I think what you’re doing is wonderful. Keep it up! I come at this from the opposite point of you as someone who, at a certain point in time, was perhaps a little bit of a big deal. Many years later I still get emails from people almost weekly saying how impactful my insight was or how inspirational watching my own and entrepreneurial journey was for them. I’m always glad to hear from them and I also 100 Percent of the time respond. Nothing creepy about it. You also never know who of those folks that have inspired you could use that little boost in that moment.

The cage you live in is of your own making. I encourage you to step outside your comfort zone. Thanking people is almost universally welcome. If your heroes don't like to be thanked I would humbly suggest picking different heroes.