Month: June 2008

Ryan Holiday did a post recently with some rules for emailing strangers.  One is quite good but another needs to be looked at again.

He mentioned Humanness as being a virtue.  By letting imperfections in speech slide, the other person feels like they are talking with a real human being.  Although i no longer punch out emails without capitalization and proper punctuation, those emails that i receive without it are still warming and somehow less strenuous on the eyes.  but my pride or whatever would never let me get past it in my own emails.

Ryan’s last rule was this: Again, emails, questions, comments, views – all of those incur a cost upon the person you want something from. It’s your job to make those as low as possible.

This is terrible advice for anyone who hesitates about emailing somebody important.  Especially me.  In the States everyone around me seems so incredibly busy that asking anything of anyone seems like such a burden to them that it can cause me to not even bother.  Looking at things like this is not emotionally healthy.

I agree, emails should be clear and straightforward, and not too long.  But fuck, if I worry about how many minutes of this guy’s time I’m going to take before I send this email, I’ll never send it off.  The best assumption is not that your email, question, or comment is going to be a burden, but that it is going to be well-received.

I am in Mexico and this phenomenon in the photo below is worth remarking about.  The way things operate in Latin America is just so darn funny.

You see they put in a handicapped ramp for their ridiculously high sidewalk.  They painted it for you so you know, even though it’s rather steep.  But, what the fuck is a person in a wheelchair supposed to do when he arrives at the pole 20 yards down the sidewalk?

 This was taken in La Paz, Mexico, in Southern Baja California.  It is easy to rag on the way things go down here, but I’ll take it any day over the states.  The women are gorgeous and the people are nice.  Always moving but to a slower rythm.  It is only with people from Latin America that you will see six guys leaning against a building, not doing or saying anything for hours.  In the USA we’d feel like we’d have to hustle.

We are cruising the Sea of Cortez on the boat, making our way north.  I’ll post anything else I find interesting.