
How to Become Well-Connected - rchen8
http://firstround.com/review/how-to-become-insanely-well-connected/
======
AndrewKemendo
This whole thing has a huge assumption behind it: That you're someone worth
being connected to.

His distinction between the Hunted and the Hunters is great, but 99% of people
don't fall into the "Hunted" category unless they are doing something
exceptional - and even those doing something exceptional aren't typically
hunted.

So while I think this is a good list, and it's pretty bog standard
Carnegie/How to read people/HUMINT etc..., the most important thing you can do
to become well connected is to be doing something that is worth connecting to.

~~~
drvdevd
I think there is also of course the distinction of the known VS unknown person
doing something worth connecting to. Lots of people who are doing things that
probably are _not_ worth much consideration are simply good at selling
themselves as something greater and vice versa.

So if you believe you are doing something worth connecting to, you better be
ready to sell yourself as well. Or risk drowning in the noise.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm neither well-connected nor currently doing much worth
connecting to :)

~~~
AndrewKemendo
That's the point here.

There are a lot of people out there applying these principals who don't really
do shit, but by god they are "well connected." You see them at all these
entrepreneur events and all they do is waste everyone's time with their
bullshit. In the end it doesn't matter how well connected they are because
they have no vector and no capabilities. These are the guys who consistently
tell you how they are incidentally connected to someone who has actually done
something - why? because that's all they know how to do. Worthless.

On the flip side there are the brilliant people out there who have done
something notable but haven't made anything of it or made any connections
because they see the guy from the first paragraph and recoil in horror. That's
who I think this article is probably for. Not sure how to reach those folks
practically though.

~~~
pdimitar
I don't know if you're a techie or a businessman but my feedback is almost the
same either way. The people you describe are _usually_ quiet / shy -- or
simply don't throw themselves at people's faces, which is something very
different.

I am the latter type; if you hit me with an interesting topic, I can talk with
you for hours and will very rarely repeat myself (how valuable what I am
saying for you is of course strongly dependent on your interests). But I won't
come to you trying to catch a conversation about what I find interesting. I'd
be much more likely approaching you with a generic opener and try and find
what you do find worth talking about. Anyway, here's what I believe is a good
approach to the people who do things in private but [almost] don't network
(like myself):

\- Don't assume quiet people are not interesting. _EVER_. My wife is easily
the most intelligent human being I've ever met and I've had to work a lot
during our first year in the relationship until she started openly sharing
what she thinks about this or that. And then I found myself having my mind
blown by very different perspectives, many times, consistently, to this day
(we're about to have a third anniversary very soon). Some people are not
amazing at striking a conversation but if you manage to engage them, you might
discover a treasure.

\- Show genuine interest in what the person is doing at the event you both
find yourself meeting at. I'd be very honest with you and one good example of
that honesty would be: "I believe I spent so much time perfecting my
engineering skills, and now I simply want to listen what people need from
technology; how do they want their lives improved by it". That would probably
open a plethora of possible follow-up topics.

\- Many of the people of my type find networking and investing in a portfolio
/ GitHub profile / LinkedIn profile / general reputation a low priority
activity. That's of course horribly misguided since millions of years of
social instincts can't be overriden but there you go; I am 37 and only now I
started actually understanding the value of these, and started slowly working
on them. That's the thing: I've been busy with far too many other things to
even consider networking for so long. Food for thought IMO; strike a
conversation accentuating what the person is thinking and doing now, not what
he/she was doing all their life up to this point. The past can wait for a
later convo.

\- Finally, as the article suggested, do offer some value to the conversation
even if you find yourself getting a lot of important information for free. I
am a bad salesman of information and I'd tell you a lot of things we the
programmers do without telling our bosses (one random example; another one
would be some trade secrets) but if 15 minutes later I realize that you
haven't offered a single interesting piece of info or a compelling question,
I'll politely excuse myself and will go look for another person to chat with.

Hope that helps a bit.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
They have to be somewhere to engage with though online or otherwise. I'm
talking about the ones that never really go anywhere or talk to anyone.

I'm a techie turned business guy, and I used to be one of those that never
went out there and talked about my stuff.

When I was a teenager I always thought the way that it would work is that
someone was going to come to my door and say "we've been secretly watching you
build this hacked together hardware for audio phase analysis and resonance
tuning. Here's millions of dollars and congratulations you're going to meet
the president."

That's the kind of people that I'm talking about being impossible to reach.

~~~
pdimitar
Yes, sadly I used to think like that as well. To an extent, I still do, but I
am gradually going out of my shell.

To me it's almost impossibly hard to start treating networking like a healthy
activity and NOT like yet another obligation. Once I overcome that, everything
else will come much easier (at least I hope so).

------
netvarun
Title is obviously a little click-baity. But I can attest that Chris Fralic
practices what he preaches.

Back in 2013, yours truly was a fresh college grad, fresh off the boat, to
play the SV lottery.

He took an hour long meeting with us, and politely declined to invest and
explained his reasoning (probably the only VC who did that and which I really
appreciated at that time since pretty much everyone else 'let me circle
back'-ed out of orbit).

He could have cut us of there, but he went the extra mile, got us a couple of
passes for us to the ChannelAdvisor conference in Vegas that year - through
which we ended up getting a couple of customers!

------
ryandrake
I consider myself reasonably outgoing, but I've always viewed "networking" as
kind of slimy and insincere. At a fundamental level, population A has little
to offer / little power and population B has a lot, and networking is the set
of personal interactions that population A employs in order to have a shot at
interacting/transacting with population B. The "hunter/hunted" relationship
mentioned in this article is a key differentiator between networking and other
forms of human interaction. All of the various tactics described in this
article and others about effective networking just seem to boil down to pretty
abstractions on top of that crass business logic. Convey genuine appreciation,
listen with intent, blah blah blah--everyone doing the dance knows what the
music is all about. Nobody is fooling anyone.

Networking is definitely a skill, I'll give you that, but it has the sincerity
of a sales pitch.

~~~
chrisdone
I generally get a slimy feeling whenever I interact with someone who is
clearly applying some kind of rules of how to interact, make you feel
comfortable and listened to, nodding at the right times and fake-laughing on
cue, all the while I feel more and more uncomfortable and alienated. There are
certain things you've either got or haven't got. You can't read a book to be
good with people any more than to become a good comedian.

However, I would prefer that people at least be explicit about the fact
they're doing such things. Then it's just process, and not fake and
uncomfortable.

~~~
pdimitar
It's pretty much a gift that you're either born with or have to work your soul
off to attain (not directly; more like "let life beat you up so bad that you
find yourself humble and respectful").

I too dislike the people who poorly fake the techniques to win over people. My
immediate subconscious reaction is:

"They have no other skills and they are desperate to increase their network.
Do they have any real skills?"

~~~
bitexploder
I would argue you can network easily with others by simply having a genuine
interest in what they are doing and what they have to tell you about it. Not a
gift. Minimal skill required. Most people generally want to tell you all about
what they are doing and it takes very little prompting other than genuine
questions.

The gift you refer to is, to me, mostly being good at understanding and
purposefully manipulating the emotional state of other people to achieve
whatever goal you have.

~~~
pdimitar
I think we agree but we simply use different terms.

The gift I am referring to is actually being genuinely interested -- and this
seems to be hard for many since they're too caught up doing only their own
thing, and reacting violently or cynically in a very ugly manner <\-- when
advised to show genuine interest.

To understand and manipulate an emotional state is to me an acquirable skill.

Quite a funny opposite understanding we have. :) Do note, I am not gonna argue
if either of us is right or wrong.

~~~
ryandrake
The "Be genuinely interested..." networking advice is like dating advice to
"Be rich and good looking".

~~~
pdimitar
Not really. It means you have to be curious. You can't fake that.

Many people don't care about anything beyond their most direct activities.
Such people are horrible at faking curiosity (and thus the genuine interest
we're talking about).

------
SandersAK
I wish articles like this would start with "hey, i come from a place of
extreme privilege, and assuming you're in the same boat, here's what i did and
it worked out ok for me given the amount of resources i had to take the risks
i did."

Instead, it gets treated as a sort of recipe which further exacerbates the
problem of selection bias and network bias.

A lot of this type of thinking is shielded by the immense wealth and agency
that the kingmakers have. But the reality is that these types of networks are
fraught with horse-traders and backchannel power exchanges.

I'm not hating though, I understand the game plays out like that. But if
you're not cultivating a community of real people connected to you, you'll get
chewed up.

~~~
brentm
> I wish articles like this would start with "hey, i come from a place of
> extreme privilege, and assuming you're in the same boat, here's what i did
> and it worked out ok for me given the amount of resources i had to take the
> risks i did."

I under your general sentiment but if you look at his Linked In
([https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisfralic/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisfralic/))
it seems to me that he worked himself into his current position slowly over
the years. There are twelve years between when he graduated undergrad and
where the article begins. Point being that everyone has an opportunity to work
hard, put themselves in the right situations and eventually earn the right to
be in a "place of privilege".

~~~
SandersAK
>Point being that everyone has an opportunity to work hard, put themselves in
the right situations and eventually earn the right to be in a "place of
privilege".

I don't actually think that's true. And the fact that the vast majority of
tech investors and wealthy elites are white men is proof of that.

Either it is that everyone else doesn't "work hard and put themselves in the
right situations," or there's some other factor (like prejudice and extreme
privilege) that is creating barriers for others.

I'm not arguing that white men that have "made it" haven't worked hard to go
that last mile, I'm just pointing out that these types of blog posts often
fail acknowledge that their starting point is far ahead of everyone else. That
lack of awareness is what contributes to the myth of "here's how to do this,
and it's a meritocratic process."

------
verdverm
Dale Carnegie 101
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People)

~~~
Balgair
Yes! To HNers out there that are put off by the title of the book, _Please_ do
not judge a book by it's cover! 'How to Win Friends...' is a classic book with
real, gritty, and practical advice that really does help. If you have not yet
read it, do yourself a favor, swallow the bitter pill that is the title, and
read it this weekend. Almost no other book is better at helping you learn how
to 'network' than this one (though if you know of a better one, please leave a
comment!)

~~~
perlgeek
Agreed. The "influence people" part of the title really rubbed me the wrong
way.

But after reading it, it's not at all about manipulating people. It could just
as well be titled "How to be a pleasant human being", because that's what it's
mostly about -- along with many anecdotes illustrating the positive
consequence of behaving pleasantly and respectfully.

------
Matetricks
Chris is an amazing person who takes the time to get to know you.

When we were fundraising, instead of having us do a regular pitch he took me
to an event where Peter Thiel was giving a talk about his new book. We were a
chess education company, so he thought it would be good for us to talk with
Thiel as he's a chess master himself.

He didn't end up investing in us but my experience with him was much more
memorable than any of the other meetings we had while fundraising.

~~~
gertef
How much funding did you seek for a chess education company?

~~~
Matetricks
It was called Chesscademy and we were raising $750k.

We were tackling the adaptive learning problem by creating tailored curricula.
The plan was to move outside of chess to other subjects as we grew, but we
found monetization to be very difficult.

------
hellogoodbyeeee
Id love some opinions on a couple networking questions I have. I'm looking for
a new job currently and I'm trying to be more proactive in networking. Is it
presumptuous to cold email somebody and ask them for coffee? I imagine
everyone is busy and doesn't have time for coffee with strangers, but I really
hate talking on the phone. And if the person I am emailing is someone I want
to work for, should I be upfront about looking for a position or should the
initial email be more of a request for an informational interview on the
industry or company?

~~~
estsauver
If you're talking to a hiring manager, it's literally their job to hire you.
It's probably at least a third of what they're responsible for at their
company. You're basically asking them for a "people review" instead of a code
review.

What you absolutely should do is lay out the basic information quickly and
completely for them.

""" Hi Name,

My name's X and I #{was referred to you by Y, heard about you on Z...} and I'm
looking for a $ROLE job. You're interesting because Q.

I'm in your area and wondering if you'd be interested in having coffee to talk
about the role? I've attached my #{resume, linkedin, github with a note about
what project to look at for a code example.}

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

~ $NAME $CONTACT_INFO """

That's the information I want to figure out if it's going to be a good use of
time or not.

You can send me a practice email personally to earl@apolloagriculture.com and
I'll give you some feedback, or if you're in Nairobi by some fluke chance we
can grab coffee.

~~~
erikb
Why are hiring managers thinking that way, though? I was in the process of
finding a new job a few months back and mostly what the HR people did was
matching words from CVs and job descriptions and then handing off the whole
process to the actual management of the company. Often it was a mismatch. It's
like inviting the first level support from your telco company to coffee
because your internet is not working.

------
pdog
These are good techniques for working a network but you'll need better advice
than "be human" if you want to be influential.

Networking is overrated. Figure out what you're good at and make sure people
hear about it. The network will take care of itself.

~~~
gertef
> "be human"

"The key is authenticity. If you can fake that, you can acheive anything."

~~~
toomuchtodo
From John Oliver's piece on Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner the other night:

Oliver then cited Ivanka’s 2009 book, The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work
and Life, in which she wrote: “Perception is more important than reality. If
someone perceives something to be true, it is more important than if it is in
fact true. This doesn’t mean you should be duplicitous or deceitful, but don’t
go out of your way to correct a false assumption if it plays to your
advantage.”

~~~
blhack
I feel like that quote is being taken somewhat out of context; she's basically
repeating an extremely common "business-ism": "their perception is your
reality".

Let's say you sell widgets. Your customers become convinced that you widgets
have a defect that causes them to break after 2 months of use.

You're frustrated because you know via extensive testing that this is a
misconception, but it doesn't _matter_.

You need to take whatever reality is (your widgets are fine), and make sure
that peoples' _perception_ of your widgets is that they are fine also. People
don't make decisions based on objective truths, they make decisions based on
their own perceptions, regardless of how faulty those perceptions might be.

------
cortesoft
I feel like this piece starts with the assumption that we should WANT to be
well connected. Being that well connected, however, doesn't come without costs
(in time and effort, mainly).

I don't think I want to be this well connected.

~~~
otoburb
Keith Ferrazzi's "Never Eat Alone" compares networks to gardens that must be
actively maintained along with attendant and relevant gardening analogies
(care/attention, pruning, growing, etc).

I read Never Eat Alone about 10 years ago and, similar to yourself, didn't
like the idea of maintaining a massive network. But many of these ideas can
still be positively (not necessarily profitably) applied to your smaller
social graph, resulting in stronger relationships amongst immediate or
extended family, and friends you make a conscious effort to stay in touch
with.

~~~
flubert
>Keith Ferrazzi's "Never Eat Alone" compares networks to gardens that must be
actively maintained along with attendant and relevant gardening analogies
(care/attention, pruning, growing, etc).

I wonder how introversion/extroversion fits into the world of "networking
theories"? I can certainly see that some people might really enjoy tending
that particular garden, and in fact "connecting with people" might be their
main source of enjoyment. While to others that seems like endless drudgery.

------
kawera
He cites Contactually for managing his network, which seems nice, but it's too
expensive for me and I generally prefer self-hosted solutions. Does anyone
knows of good alternatives?

~~~
skevvis
Hey there - I'm Zvi, CEO of Contactually. Honestly, if cost is a major factor
for you, you can build a spreadsheet tool that can work really well. However,
it takes the same discipline that Contactually or any other tool would require
- just a bit more time.

If you really love self-hosted, SugarCRM is the main open source CRM out
there.

~~~
kawera
Thank you, your service seems great and well worth it's price but I really
can't afford $500/y specifically for this right now. So far I've been playing
the spreadsheet game but it does take a lot of time - I may eventually write a
little django crud/workflow app one of these days... sugar codebase scares me!

~~~
reid
I am interested in working on an application focused on personal use that can
be self-hosted. Using Airtable in the meantime.

Agreed that most apps in this space are huge and focused on business and
sales. I am more interested in software that helps cultivate personal, offline
relationships -- as opposed to ScaleMail and such.

~~~
pdimitar
What feature would win you over for such an app?

For me it would probably be the app proactively reminding me "hey, you marked
this person as important but haven't contacted them for a month". Even if this
can become a bit annoying it still keeps you in the loop and puts a thought at
the back of your head.

<insert _it 's something_ meme here>

Another one would probably be the app automatically stalking the person and
informing you if they're about to participate in an event where a keyword /
tag matches your interests. (That sounds pretty tough to do however.)

------
j_s
The the tech realm: drink coffee and/or alchohol (much more effective).

It's getting better but these are often prerequisites to spending time with
people outside of work.

Edit: I agree with a lot of this discussion: _Do startups have a drinking
problem?_ |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11723133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11723133)

~~~
exolymph
Cafes and bars do sell other beverages. Drink juice, or soda, or sparkling
water. Order a virgin cocktail.

~~~
brandnewlow
I try to take meetings at Samovar Tea Lounge in SF when possible. Tea is less
punishing.

------
caseysoftware
As a developer evangelist for years, I've found the most important question to
ask people is also the simplest:

"What are you working on right now?"

Some people will talk about their job, their side project, their hobby, their
kids, or whatever. And you can see their passion and what excites them. If you
know something about the topic and can ask an intelligent question or two,
even better.

------
gh1
I wanted to ask an open ended question : how important do you think it is to
be well-connected? I am sure if someone spent a lot of time going to plenty of
networking events and put serious effort into talking with people, then they
could grow their network pretty fast. But every minute spent in networking is
a minute not spent in doing something else. So how do you set your priorities?

~~~
kyleschiller
It really depends on what you want to accomplish, if you're an engineer, love
your job and would be happy doing it for the next 4 years, there's probably
not too much to gain. If you're an investor, your network is everything.

~~~
gh1
Yes, agreed. But I guess an engineer would want to make career progress too,
right? Isn't it smart to be networked to ensure that you are at the forefront
of opportunity?

As an aside, I was in the academia previously and it seems that networking is
highly correlated with success there.

~~~
pdimitar
This struck a nerve in me.

What I found to be true over 15 years of a programmer carreer is that you can
grow in your current job, but not by much. There exists some kind of
psychological barrier for the people above you and they find all sorts of ways
to put you down. Maybe it's just the money; who wants to spend more without
knowing beforehand if they'll get more value?

So I'd say for a tech worker networking becomes extremely important if they
are looking to move to a next step in their carreer, be it in terms of
responsibility, money, new sub-area of work, or a mix of all.

------
kordless
> How to Become Well-Connected

> “If you find yourself keeping score in your professional relationships,
> you’re on the wrong track.”

Being "well connected" is an objective here, given it's lead by "how to". That
intent leads to keeping score, so it's less than obvious how to resolve
becoming well connected without keeping score.

Not giving a shit about what others think is the SECOND step to the
enlightenment. The FIRST step is letting go of self judgment. Accepting self
first allows one to realize that speaking for other's intent, even if they are
blaming, may originate from their own self-judgements.

I no longer give a shit what anyone thinks about what I say because I realize
I can only speak for my own choices and not others, not because I don't have
empathy for other's thoughts. That's not to say I've perfected this technique
however, I frequently catch myself blaming others when blame is going around.
I can only set intent to become better myself. Others have the choice of doing
the same, or not.

~~~
maccard
> I no longer give a shit what anyone thinks about what I say

I don't agree. I think it's important to take into account what other people
think, otherwise you're saying "I'm an ass, deal with it". However, It's
important to say what you mean, even if you know the person you are speaking
to doesn't agree.

~~~
kordless
Trimming someone's comment to suit a desired reply is akin to speaking for
someone. Read the comment again. Empathy for others is included. Accepting
blame (giving a shit) is not.

------
speeder
I liked the article but it doesn't explain how to start a network... much of
its advice is about how to manage an existing one.

Examples: it mentions that you should sometimes offer stuff to people you
already know, instead of only interacting to ask. But what to do when your
network is nonexistent and you have nothing to offer?

~~~
maccard
Are you saying you have no skills or interests or abilities that you could
share? And that you don't know any people at any level. Work colleagues,
neighbours, people you meet/met in school/college/university. As for "things
tovgive". - almost everyone has time, and can talk/be a pair of arms or legs,
or can read something or drop something off.

------
CPLX
Regardless of the other merits of the linked content, and the odd prevalence
of these painfully content-free and fluffy First Round Review pieces on the HN
front page, I think we can all agree that there is simply no such thing as a
"landmark Forbes piece on nailing email introductions".

------
bluker
There are two things that I've always found that will immediately engage
people and make a lasting impression.

1\. How did you become who you are? People work hard to where they're at and
they rarely get to tell their story - so I found that engaging them on this
level allows them to reminisce a little bit about where they came from and
most people will light right up.

2\. Write hand-written notes. This is a lost art and Brian Chesky talks about
how he learned from George Tenet the value of writing hand-written notes.

[http://fortune.com/brian-chesky-airbnb/](http://fortune.com/brian-chesky-
airbnb/)

------
theprop
TL:DR --> mostly email advice. Keep emails short. To the point. "no need to
respond" is powerful. Follow up on whatever you say you will. Offer something
before you ask for something.

~~~
ignawin
How exactly is "no need to respond" powerful? Are you getting higher response
rate just because of this sentence?

------
josh_carterPDX
Sigh. Not a big fan of articles like these because it's different for everyone
and there are a lot of variables that can make this a success or failure.
There is not a play book for how to connect with people other than just not
being a complete dick. There. I just gave you an awesome tip. Don't be a dick
and people will want to talk to you. Be authentic. Not sure why people feel
the need to write an article that serves as a reminder on how you can connect
with people on a "real" level.

------
amitmgr
To well connect one need to focus on people they like due to their extra
traits other than qualities and knowledge.

------
citizens
I met Chris during an Uber Pitch ride a few months back and just meeting him
was a remarkable experience. Looking back, in the course of conversation he
did use these "7 Rules for Making Memorable Connections" and they worked.

------
venture_lol
Come on HN and announce you are looking to drop some 50-100K seeds on 5
projects

Be ready to be hunted :)

------
a_d
There are many great points being made in the article, and in the comments -
esp the comment about how this is a rehash of wisdom from Dale Carnegie.

I believe these kinds of posts need to have a corollary for introverts - folks
that are shyer, more reluctant/reflective (thoughtful, perhaps), aren't great
at small talk and find the prospect of starting a conversation intimidating.
While I am naturally skeptical of any kind of 'people categorization' \- I do
think there are folks who find "networking" daunting. So, what should they do?

I think the first step is to acknowledge the importance of a good network of
people that you can talk to - it is often a powerful source of diverse ideas
(outside of your own bubble), mentorship, collaboration and even friendship.
The reason I say this is because it is often easy to dismiss "networking" as
something frivolous (it doesn't help sometimes when certain people hijack this
word to mean lots of low-quality connections) or not-for-me or 'I am just
happy doing my own thing' etc. I think a discussion about how networking helps
us in various facets of life is important. I'd love to hear positive examples
from others in this area.

The second step is to work towards a realization that most of the qualities
that introverts likely possess - like "listening well" \- are key to this
"networking-thing". So you already possess a lot of the raw ingredients that
are needed to have a good network of people.

The third step is to really value diversity - of ideas/opinions, knowledge and
competence (e.g. "engineering" sometimes have reluctance in appreciating
"sales"). Groups, companies, teams thrive when there is _real_ diversity. This
should make you want to talk to others who are doing different things in
different domains (or same things as you, but differently)

And finally, realize that (and several folks points this out in the comments)
it is not about "tricks" \- i.e. don't lose your authentic self. But try to
distil the "tricks" into more basic human tenets - e.g. if you are a curious
individual genuinely interesting in learning more about technology (say), then
"Convey genuine appreciation" isn't something you would need to fake.

The longer I work and observe other folks doing interesting things, the more I
find that networking is a useful (even powerful) thing -- and I say this as an
introvert and someone not proficient at networking (have a very small group of
close friends). I often think "wouldn't it be cool to learn more about what
this person is doing" or even "how did they do that!?", and lately (gradually)
started acting on that impulse and wrote to some of those folks (that I wish
to know and learn from). To my surprise, it was very rewarding. I met some
very knowledgeable and interesting people -- even some that I learned from a
lot. Just having a bunch of people that I can discuss different topics with -
related to software, scaling, operations (or life in general!) has been
rewarding.

Most of what I say here is obvious, but I just wanted to share this because I
struggled (and continue to) with this whole "networking-thing". :)

~~~
pdimitar
Valuable comment, thank you for it.

I am not introverted at all, quite the contrary. For me the blocker however is
a lack of patience, burn-out and being tired almost all the time.

The way out of this is of course exercise, good sleep, and above all -- _don
't think about networking as an obligation_. When I started accepting the fact
that networking is a very basic activity practiced by humans probably since
the dawn of their existence, it started becoming easier for me to do it and I
didn't have to fake a thing when meeting people.

It does feel rewarding indeed but I have long ways to go still. Learning to
get out of my flat and actually go meet people at events is a _hard_ thing to
overcome. I guess in technical terms this is the initial bootstrap overhead
and it'll become easier with time. :)

------
traviswingo
This reminds me of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.
Absolutely one of the best books to read if you're looking to improve your
social skills.

------
hestefisk
So full of clichés - blue sky brainstorm. What does it even mean? You don't
need years of VC experience to know all of this is common sense.

------
known
Traditionally it has been politics and religion

------
Arqu
This got to be the worst choice of colors for mobile I've seen in a long time.
Can barely read it at max brightness.

~~~
Arqu
Actually seems just that some css didn't load properly.

------
mrmrcoleman
Grade A bellendery. There are so many holes in this I don't even know where to
start.

------
fgvvbbb
Nice

------
chromakode
[https://xkcd.com/1827/](https://xkcd.com/1827/)

~~~
tmalsburg2
So any form of advice is now dismissed as just being a sign of survivor bias?

~~~
bbcbasic
Probably not. Depends on the claim and the logic behind it.

