Quite touching reading about all the emails got during his hiatus. astralcodexten.substack.com/p/still-alive
I forget this too often, so a catechism: praise is positive sum, and most people are not nearly as close to the point of diminishing returns as I might imagine!
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When I email someone who’s written a popular book/essay/paper, I always subconsciously imagine that email’s going into a black hole, a drop in a bucket full of fan mail. But most of the time I get a reply which makes it obvious that’s not the case!
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It’s a weird asymmetry in my theory of mind. For whatever reason, the amount of happiness I imagine a nice note would bring to someone else is less than what I usually feel myself in the same situation!
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(Speaking of praise, Scott’s precise-but-conversational prose styling is just astoundingly good and I’m jealous!!)
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One of the most surprising and shocking changes in my career has been going from a company where nobody thanked me for my effort to one where someone did. I’ve made a point of passing that along to others. It’s matters more than most people appreciate.
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