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  jackconsidine
  This was an excellently written, salient post with some good tidbits.I've learned some of these lessons the hard way. I'll add a few. Proof of work is important, but it's not about the magnitude of energy you spend. I went through two iterations of reaching out to my college network. The first time I put so much time into handwriting notes and trying to provide my relatable background. 100 notes, not a single response.The second time I sent emails that were a few sentences. I had a much clearer ask and devoted the effort into fitting my questions into the email. I wanted a conversation really, but I also tried to communicate what I planned to ask.15% response rate and invaluable conversations. Less overall "work".Secondly, and relatedly, don't ever waste someone's time. Don't ask for / accept a meeting if you don't have some semblance of a clear ask. It's hard, especially in early stage business where you're trying to discover what you don't know. But you can try to lay out your tier 1 "here's what I think", "here are the follow ups".I sensed once that I had irritated someone by lacking the agenda. Another time I took a mutual connection up on an intro where I didn't know what I really needed. I regret both of these.Thirdly try to pay it forward. It won't always come back around, but you can feel more comfortable asking for help and more cognizant of what a helper (so to speak) is thinking
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  FinnLobsien
  The problem here is that most points are about how to formulate your ask. I think the biggest thing is that you're much more likely to get help if you show you're doing the best to solve it yourself.There's a big difference between:"Hey, I saw this job at [company you work at], could you refer me please? I'm [lists skills and experience]"and"Hey I'm thinking of applying to [company you work at] for the product designer position and I want to make an impression, so I'm putting together a demo Figma with a couple of things I'd fix and how. I spotted those when I did the onboarding for your free trial. I'm curious if you could tell me whether [design flaw] is intentional to deter abuse or if that's something I could fix? Totally get if that's confidential"The part where you're solving the problem instead of hoping someone else will solve it for you, that's much more important then how you word it.
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  Aurornis
  > One of the strongest ways to show that you’re worth helping is to demonstrate that you are a serious personWhen I’ve been in positions where a lot of people ask for help, this is the #1 place I saw people drop the ball.The advice to show proof of work up front is important. What isn’t so obvious is that the proof of work needs to go deeper than surface level. Putting up a single blog post or having Claude write some code that you upload to GitHub doesn’t cut it. You have to show that you’ve been putting effort into this for all the right reasons, not just as a ploy to appear like a serious person. When you get 10 requests for help every week you get very good at being able to tell who has been putting in the work and who thought they could appear like a serious person by putting on a little show.This doesn’t end after you get the meeting. Following up is just as important. When someone makes time to hear you out and offer advice, you need to demonstrate that you tried what they suggested. You can choose not to follow their advice, but that’s probably the end of the help you receive. It’s a choice.The easiest way to blow it is to ask for someone’s help, then ignore it or fail to follow through. If someone helps you, follow up with some contact to explain how it helped, or at least how you tried it. Nothing is more frustrating than setting aside time to help someone and then a month later you run into them and learn that they haven’t gotten around to doing the thing they wanted help with.
• fapi1974
  Adding to the canon, something I started awhile back, maybe worth revisiting: https://pizarrowrites.substack.com/p/the-book-of-help
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  mrtb
  I've been DM'ing randos on LinkedIn for lightweight consults and found that offering to pay up front and asking strangers to price their own time can help to show seriousness and often results in free interactions or buy-me-a-coffee pricing. e.g. "Hey I love your work on X, I've been thinking about / working on related thing Y and would love your feedback on aspect Z. How much $$ to rent your brain for 20 minutes? I'm mainly wondering what you think/know about specific questions A, B, and C." They can either reply with a price, suggest a time for a short call, or just answer directly
• nilirl
  The strongest signal you can give people now is offering personal interaction. It's expensive to go meet someone or ask someone if you can call them.I wrote about this from the perspective of someone with no connections [0] but I think even if you're well connected, reaching out to people from other networks is a useful way to gain access to great thinking, information, and opportunity.[0] https://www.nair.sh/guides-and-opinions/marketing-under-pres...
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  javier_e06
  Identify yourself clearly.Explain your rationale for picking that person you are trying to reach.Put yourself at mercy of the helper.Last but not least.End the recording and turn of the camera on your R2D2 droid.
• bobbytheblkbear
  I have a shorter list:1. Be Rich2. Be Attractive if you didn't complete step 1.3. If you failed to complete steps 1. and 2., don't bother.
• VBprogrammer
  Step 1: Clanker rape[1] them with a one pager of obvious AI generated summary of the issue. Step 2: Profit.[1] I'm trying to establish this as the accepted idiom for having low quality AI output forced upon you without consent.
• cainxinth
  Here's a tip for doing this while traveling: If you need quick help on the street from a stranger in a country where you don't speak the language, don't open by asking if they speak your language. People will almost invariably say no even if they do to avoid the imposition.Just say "hello/excuse me" in their language and then ask the question in your language. If they speak it, they will often answer you quickly. Sometimes you can even see a look dawn on their face after the fact as they realize you skipped the first step.
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  lisper
  For technical requests, one of the most effective ways to demonstrate that you are serious is to cite something about the person's published work that is relevant to the request. There is no more effective way to get someone's attention than showing that you have read and appreciated something they've written.
• stronglikedan
  Also remember that most people want to be helpful. You can play into that by starting with something like, "I was hoping you could help me get myself out of a little pickle." A little self deprecation combined with a compliment goes a long way, so if you're truly asking them to help you get out of a jam and they're one of the few people that can truly help you, say something like, "boy I really screwed this up and I'm not sure what the best approach would be, but I figured that someone with your expertise could get me reoriented quickly!"
• andreylangovoy
  Really liked the point that asking for help is not about sounding impressive, but about making it easy and natural for another person to say yes.
• johnathan101
  I've found that making the request easy to decline is surprisingly effective. People are much more willing to help when they don't feel trapped into saying yes.
• kayo_20211030
  Good piece. However "can I pick your brain?" isn't great unless you lay out the boundaries. About what? Be clear.OTOH,> make it easy to say nois the best piece of advice amongst many other pieces of good advice
• crumby
  Don't say, I've been working on your neighbors house and figured you might want to hire my crew to work on yours. We all know it's a lie.
• joshuapanka
  100% in terms of people before project.Especially when starting something yourself. It sounds obvious but it took me far too long to long to go to people actively talking about their problems and help them vs asking them for problems they are facing.Making that switch was a big difference in terms of outreach.
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  crispyambulance
  There is plenty advice around for "how to ask" (really, it's the same if you know the person or not). It all boils down to a Calvinistic "show you're worthy" kind of exercise.But what about advice for giving help to someone?There's plenty of ways that giving someone help can go horribly wrong, and I think that it's not uncommon for people to be blindsided by such a request.
• jak6jak
  From what I have seen online like for Reddit discord and online forums is that the questions with the most responses tend to be almost the exact opposite of what this post says. What you got to do is bait the audience into responding. It usually follows the following formula: Title: “woe is me this problem with well documented answers is troubling me!”Body: a vague description of what the problem is and what they’ve tried. Leaving out key details that would drastically change the answer.Response to answers: now that you have them hooked most answers will be actual questions about what your original post lacked to clarify. Be sure to respond to these as the more engagement on your post makes the algorithm show it to more people. And the second round of answers has a higher chance of answering your question.Wait until a critical mass of people have seen and attempted answering your question to exhaustion. Hopefully you will be able to piece together a solution.
• sherlock-holmes
  > demonstrate that you are a serious persona LOT of people miss this
• gus_massa
  I'd add two recommendations:* No abbreviations like "plz"* No wall of text (and no AI walls of text)
• jdw64
  Alright, after reading this, I'll put it into practice right away. First, I'll make a list of people I want to get close to, and then I'll shoot them an email to see if they'd like to stay in touch with me
• CGMthrowaway
  Connect, show your own commitment, size for success their requested commitment, leave them an out.
• anon
  undefined
• throw949484
  Put attractive female image into your profile. Create secondary profiles with activity if you have to.Starting yet another project on my primary GitHub profile has zero return. My secondary profile with trivial code is getting job offers...
• danielsmori
  [flagged]
• maxothex
  [flagged]
• zacharyjradford
  [dead]
• navigate8310
  The complete article hinges on the fact that, it's not X; but Y.