3 ms·
Well, I guess I have some terrible flavor of social anxiety or something, because it often takes me half an hour or more of ugh to compose even a short reply if
by polarix 13y ago
Well, I guess I have some terrible flavor of social anxiety or something, because it often takes me half an hour or more of ugh to compose even a short reply if I'm introduced to someone, so this ends up being a huge boulder in my todo list. I suppose if people take this attitude in response the situation will simply resolve itself.
- shalmanese 13y agoI used to feel that way sometimes but I ended up fixing it by mechanizing the process to a significant extent (note: I still write each one out completely by hand without any template but I know the main points I want to hit). Whenever an intro comes in, I divide it into one of a few buckets and immediately send a mostly rote email back quickly: * Highly interested - schedule a F2F or phone meeting within in the next week, suggest two dates to discuss more ("Wow, that sounds cool, would love to catch up in person to discuss more, are you available X or Y? I'm based in A but willing to travel anywhere around B") * Kinda interested, being polite - suggest a phone meeting and strongly time box it ("This sounds potentially interesting. I can do a 15 minute call at X before my next appointment) * Non-commital - Ask for more info, put the onus on the other party. ("Hey, would love to hear more about this, can you forward me X & Y so I can get a better understanding of how I can be helpful?") * Useless - Polite brushoff ("Hey, I took a look and I don't think I'm the right person to help you with this for X & Y reason. Maybe you could try A & B? Thanks") I think the key was to not put so much onus on the next step. By the end of the intro, I barely have any info, my main goal is to gather more to make a decision.