tips-businessCommunicationTipsForNerds

business communication tips for nerds (= things i'm learning the hard way)

__note: i am a big nerd and very awkward so this is the blind leading the blind, beware__

(a) explain very concisely why you can't help them; phrased in such a way that it is clear the problem is you, not them, or that they are basically not the person you need; e.g. once i sent someone an email asking them if they were interesting in talking about a project in open source governance with me, and they replied,

(b) try to help them out as much as you can in a short period of them. finish with a short but polite, encouraging message that suggests that the conversation is over, but in a good way. e.g. once i asked someone if they'd like to talk about a project. they didn't say they would, but they said it sounded interesting and gave me a suggestion on it. Then they said it would be "interesting what you learn, and how we could apply that here". They closed with, "Thanks for getting in touch, and good luck!". Emotionally, the effect I think this was supposed to have on me was: "I don't have a lot of time to talk about this, but you are a good person and I hope that we will meet again later". (of course, being an idiot nerd i didn't take the hint and tried to continue the conversation right then, which led the other party to ignore my next email; but that's my fault; which leads us to...)