Some Kind Words About Small Print

I received a couple of kind emails in the past week or so that really helped put some spring in my steps. Sometimes my work is somewhat thankless. Oftentimes I write articles or do presentations and think to myself “man, I hope someone got something out of that.” And oftentimes I have no idea if anyone did. The kind comments and emails always inspire me to keep on keeping on…

On a recent news article:

“Hi Donald,

I don’t usually have much time, but wanted to say thank you and good job on the article the other day. We have been looking at the way we tell stories and really examining our frameworks, so I appreciate… your bringing it back towards narratives and away from [the] journalistic.”

It’s funny how often I’m asked for advice on writing and I always stress the need for narrative, for story. This just reaffirms my point.

I also received this from a participant at a recent funding proposal seminar that I gave:

“Hi Donald,

I attended your funding seminar [last week]. I just wanted to thank you, you really opened my eyes and hit me with a wall of reality! I thoroughly enjoyed it…you stated that it might be a boring topic, but I think it is a challenge and an excellent life skill to have. I’ve started to think more seriously about my ideas and I’m so excited to get started.”

And that after one of the driest presentations I’ve ever given.

Thanks for the kind words, folks!