This is one of the points I’m less sure about because often enough, the rest of the message will implicitly answer it. In addition, what to include is highly dependent on context and who you are writing to.
Two very general recommendations: - Something that helps the other person gauge how long the inferential distances between you two are, so that communication can be as quick as possible and as thorough as necessary. - Something that helps them gauge your level of seniority. It’s unfortunate but true that the time of people a couple levels of seniority above your own is extremely valuable. For example, it would hardly make sense for a Nick Bostrom to make time for helping a bright-but-not-Einstein-level high school student he never met decide which minor to choose in university. If people can’t gauge your level of seniority, they might misjudge whether they are the right person for you to talk to, and then you might end up in a conversation that is extremely awkward and a waste of time for either side.
Some examples: - “Hi! I’m xyz, Ops lead at Linear.” - “Hi! I’m a computer science undergrad at Atlantis University and a long-time lurker on LessTrue.” - …
what do you mean by “know how to interact with you”? what should the one-sentence introduction consist of that conveys this?
This is one of the points I’m less sure about because often enough, the rest of the message will implicitly answer it. In addition, what to include is highly dependent on context and who you are writing to.
Two very general recommendations:
- Something that helps the other person gauge how long the inferential distances between you two are, so that communication can be as quick as possible and as thorough as necessary.
- Something that helps them gauge your level of seniority. It’s unfortunate but true that the time of people a couple levels of seniority above your own is extremely valuable. For example, it would hardly make sense for a Nick Bostrom to make time for helping a bright-but-not-Einstein-level high school student he never met decide which minor to choose in university. If people can’t gauge your level of seniority, they might misjudge whether they are the right person for you to talk to, and then you might end up in a conversation that is extremely awkward and a waste of time for either side.
Some examples:
- “Hi! I’m xyz, Ops lead at Linear.”
- “Hi! I’m a computer science undergrad at Atlantis University and a long-time lurker on LessTrue.”
- …