[nicbou]

My closest friendships and two relationships started with a cold email. I love when strangers write to me and I give them my full attention. I also write words of praise to bloggers. A simple heartfelt email goes a long way. An LLM-authored email goes right to spam.

I struggle to apply this openness to real life, where the rejection is a lot more instantaneous and awkward. All the data shows that it works and that failure won’t kill me, but my whole being is trying to stop me.

Any advice?

[dingdong2026]

Do it despite the suck. At some point you grow indifferent to it. The point is not to avoid the discomfort but to make "rejection" feel like a meaningless prick. Like walking on grass with bare feet: yes, sometimes you step on a tiny stick or whatever, but walking in shoes instead would be such a waste of a pleasant experience. :)

[nicbou]

That's in line with all the wisdom I've received. A rejection is not a measure of your worth, just the cost of doing business. After all I reject a lot of perfectly fine people for various reasons.