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The Cold Email

zachholman.com

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Re: The Cold Email

#51

Post by abrookewood »

tombert wrote: post #29

Something I learned awhile ago is that most people that I consider "celebrities" really aren't that famous, and as such are generally pretty happy to respond to emails. In ~2014 I sent an email to Joe Armstrong (one of the creators of Erlang) asking some questions about concurrency because I still didn't fully understand why Erlang was supposed to be better for it. I expected him to just point me to an FAQ or simply…

Yeah, genuinely sad when he passed. He's not the most influential person in computing, but for some reason, he was the one person I most wanted to meet. Probably the way he presented himself. Seemed like a genuinely good guy.

Re: The Cold Email

#52

Post by muppetman »

I got my first job (an IT traineeship) because after my interview, I rang them every few days to ask how I did and if they were keen to progress further. In the end they said they gave it to me because I was obviously SO keen, what withi the ringing every other day, and I had interviewed well.

Anyway my point is, as the author implies, showing interest is key. I genuinely wanted that job and I showed them that.

Sadly these days (that happened to me in ~1998) it's so, so much harder to stand out. There's a wall of bits and "employment services" between you and the person who'd hire you, and I don't know how the younger generation is going to be able to navigate that easily.

Re: The Cold Email

#53

Post by zahrevsky »

cebert wrote: post #41

This is a great read, but I wonder how effective cold messages are in the AI era. I now receive customized cold emails and LinkedIn messages. There are several tools like Clay that make AI messaging effortless. It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine if message are AI-generated or if a human actually took the time to write them and care. I see in-person networking becoming increasingly valuable. Unfortunat…

> It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine if message are AI-generated or if a human actually took the time to write them and care.

Could you share some examples? Based on my experience (and other replies here) it's exactly the opposite, and you could easily see if the message was AI-generated.

Re: The Cold Email

#54

Post by shomp »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #23
andy99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s such an opportunity, it has never been easier to differentiate oneself now, all you have to do is ignore whatever online advice or LLMs say and do your own thing, it’s sad that almost nobody does it.

This makes me think of an email support request I got at a job a long time ago that began with the words "Fucking cunts how fucking dare you", before gradually cooling down and gesturing broadly at what the problem was, without ever reaching for the crutch of punctuation. I printed it out and stuck it on the wall. HN reader, now you too know what it takes to make a powerful human impression via email.

"without ever reaching for the crutch of punctuation" how delightful

Re: The Cold Email

#55

Post by s1mon »

One key turning point in my life was approaching Red Whittaker, the head of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon. I knew who he was and had met him briefly before, but this was pretty much a “cold call” even if happened to be in person. I was finishing up my degree at CMU and felt like if was going to stay in Pittsburgh, I wanted to work somewhere that was working on really cool projects. My degree was a BFA in sculpture, but I guess my enthusiasm and interest in novel mechanisms was enough for him to take a chance and make a position for me. I learned a lot from (and with) the team of PhD students and staff. The job had me starting to use parametric CAD at very early point (Pro/E 6.0). After a few years I moved on and eventually left Pittsburgh for SF, but without taking that chance, I really don’t know what path my life would have taken.

Re: The Cold Email

#56

Post by kinj28 »

I cold emailed a researcher in Japan about gut bacteria e. Americana for cancer treatment and registering my dad for clinical trials as and when they happen. And hell yea - professor replied :)

So yes — just do it!

Re: The Cold Email

#57

Post by jibal »

tombert wrote: post #29

Something I learned awhile ago is that most people that I consider "celebrities" really aren't that famous, and as such are generally pretty happy to respond to emails. In ~2014 I sent an email to Joe Armstrong (one of the creators of Erlang) asking some questions about concurrency because I still didn't fully understand why Erlang was supposed to be better for it. I expected him to just point me to an FAQ or simply…

I've sent cold emails to Noam Chomsky and Daniel Dennett and received prompt and friendly replies. (I had met each briefly and mentioned that in my emails ... that may have helped.) I emailed Chomsky on 9/11, asking about blowback from U.S. operations in Afghanistan. He responded the next day, apologizing for the delay (!) because he was receiving so many queries. He sent me numerous citations, including a Newsweek (IIRC) article that was very much on point, as well as his own thoughts. I remember that he wrote "there are dark days ahead".

I also recall having an email exchange with Guy Steele about Java. Of course these days you can interact with all sorts of people publicly on social media -- I've had exchanges with Andrew Kelley and Walter Bright here on HN. Back in the day the "social media" was usenet -- and I had exchanges with various prominent people, including Marvin Minsky who sent me a draft of his book "The Emotion Machine" for review.

In 1978 I was working for a client of Interactive Systems Corporation (the first commercial UNIX developer) and a friend who worked at ISC said there was an opening but they couldn't initiate interest because it would be poaching from their client, so he suggested I send a letter. I sent a glowing letter about their being an innovative company in many ways (I meant every word) -- they were impressed and arranged an interview and I got the job.

Re: The Cold Email

#58

Post by Snacklive »

tombert wrote: post #29

Something I learned awhile ago is that most people that I consider "celebrities" really aren't that famous, and as such are generally pretty happy to respond to emails. In ~2014 I sent an email to Joe Armstrong (one of the creators of Erlang) asking some questions about concurrency because I still didn't fully understand why Erlang was supposed to be better for it. I expected him to just point me to an FAQ or simply…

Do you have the email by any chance ? That sounds like an awesome read

Re: The Cold Email

#59

Post by inigyou »

zahrevsky wrote: post #50
gerdesj wrote: post #30

I'm probably somewhat older than most here. What OP is describing is what used to be normal and should still be! In the past it was normal to write a CV (resume) and a covering letter that was mildly tailored to each target firm, either in response to a job advert or on spec. I'm not talking quill pens here - you'd do a mail merge and buy a really large book of stamps. Linked In is possibly the worst thing that ever…

The craziest part is that this tailored approach is now a red flag, because HR just assumes your covering letter is LLM-generated. “Damn kids, they're all alike” vibes.

Assumes? They're using an LLM themselves, and they don't read the cover letter anyway, and if they did, they don't see what's wrong with using an LLM.

Re: The Cold Email

#60

Post by inigyou »

flamadiddle wrote: post #25

The author is doing his article a disservice by calling this cold email. He just sent a few one-off emails to strangers. That's quite different than the BDR team at Startup Du Jour scraping LinkedIn and blasting out an enless stream of "hope this message finds you well" slop. I'd wager that the majority of us do not differentiate between cold email and spam, especially in the AI era.

No, it isn't different. What you're describing is a cold email that some people might not feel is spam, and one that everyone agrees is spam.
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