71–80 of 101 posts
I email strangers all the time relating to my businesses. But for "personal" time? Gives me the shivers.
Why? I'm reading lots of reply's on here from people afraid of talking to strangers. Is there something wrong with you all? FWIW: Strangers have the best sweets.
not to make this yet another 'in the age of AI' comment, but i can't help myself: given how cold and barren the mainstream internet feels now, cold emailing strangers in a non-transactional way is a humanitarian act. when i get emails from strangers about my own personal blog it makes me feel a little brighter about things for like an hour after. it's why i keep my email on my blog, despite the occasional spam/anonymous hate
I have emailed people based on a YouTube video, podcast episode, blog post, or just browsing a project on GitHub. If their email address is available I see that as permission to contact them for "wholesome" purposes. A few things that come to mind: 1. clarification on something in particular that they have already published 2. engage in genuine discussion about adjacent topics in which their opinion is specifically r…
My senior year of college, I emailed a Danish/Swedish professor (had lived in both countries and published in both languages) about a niche research article he had published that I was unable to find. He not only sent me the article, but mailed a couple copies of his books to me in the US. Sadly, my Scandinavian reading comprehension has plummeted since then and I am unable to read his books anymore, but they sit on…
I find myself in a similar situation. Drafting an email to an academic. And as I decipher her motivations with respect to her own work from micro-expressions she had in an interview, I start to think we're not that different. I'm falling in love, how embarrassing ...
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I’ve been on the creator side with 1M+ followers and the amount of times someone has dropped a kind note like that can be counted on one hand. It’s such a breath of fresh air compared to the hate, criticizing and general unpleasantness that is so pervasive when dealing with online communities - even my own. As a result, I make it a point to send notes to anyone if I’ve enjoyed their work, because I know how much its…
I'd be curious to hear more; I assume you are distinguishing a positive note (email etc) from a positive comment?
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I get dozens of cold emails and LI messages from sales/ recruiting a week. Only about one per year writes "I read your blog and liked your point about xyz." I always take that call. My LI (and HN) profile opens with my blog, so if they did 5 seconds of research they would find it.
Just this week, I got my first AI-automated one, following a pattern of "liked your X, especially Y". I hope the people doing things like that realize that's awful for humanity, and they stop doing that.
Forget emailing strangers, I have a hard time talking to my neighbours.
I still somewhat like the email format, but I am also unable to deal with it, accumulating literally thousand of unread (non-spam) emails. I just can't keep up with the volume. I saw others use clients such as mutt or what not, and read through email on the terminal, so perhaps I should do that, but this is never the bottle neck for me. It is writing replies that is the bottleneck; it takes too much time away. I also need to think before writing, which is another bottleneck. I am very bad at thinking.
A low-risk way to dip your toes in is to email a blogger to say that you enjoyed their post or that you found it helpful. The message doesn’t have to have useful information in it, just be sincere. Per OP, often there won’t be a reply but also often it’s much appreciated - particularly by non-mainstream writers.
All emails I got so far from Nigeria claimed to have been sincere!
A low-risk way to dip your toes in is to email a blogger to say that you enjoyed their post or that you found it helpful. The message doesn’t have to have useful information in it, just be sincere. Per OP, often there won’t be a reply but also often it’s much appreciated - particularly by non-mainstream writers.
A low-risk way to dip your toes in is to email a blogger to say that you enjoyed their post or that you found it helpful. The message doesn’t have to have useful information in it, just be sincere. Per OP, often there won’t be a reply but also often it’s much appreciated - particularly by non-mainstream writers.
I’ve been on the creator side with 1M+ followers and the amount of times someone has dropped a kind note like that can be counted on one hand. It’s such a breath of fresh air compared to the hate, criticizing and general unpleasantness that is so pervasive when dealing with online communities - even my own. As a result, I make it a point to send notes to anyone if I’ve enjoyed their work, because I know how much its…