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2026-03-16

Should I type cold messages slowly?

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• Quick Note

Main

• I have been recently humbled by the difficulty of writing good cold messages for the type of radical work I want to do.
• Most of my cold messages get ignored, and it's hard to diagnose why, and I have multiple times gotten proof that the actual reason I diagnosed was wrong.
• Incomplete list of reasons the message might be ignored:
  • The person literally does not check that inbox often, they're busy with other things.
  • They skimmed it but it didn't match their immediate priorities. They could have work or non-work priorities. Example of non-work priority - being sick or depressed, having to meet family, etc.
  • They misunderstood your message because of insufficient context. Or they misunderstood your message because their own worldview is different, for instance due to very different life circumstances.
  • They disagree with something in your message.
  • There might be incentives that prevent them from being in a position to engage with your message, even if they otherwise want to.
    • In my specific case, obvious political risks are a reason why strangers will be less likely to respond to me.
  • They genuinely dislike your beliefs or values, or maybe even dislike you as a person.
• How to deal with this:
  • One perspective is just the SV perspective, most mistakes can be corrected if you move fast. Write hundreds of messages and be prepared to have most rejected.
  • Another perspective is more a politician-like perspective, really put effort to try and figure out their circumstances and personality type and whatnot, and then craft good cold messages. For instance you could meet people of their reference class in-person and get feedback, or read the same blogs they do, or whatever.
  • Send video cold DMs instead of text cold DMs. People trust video more, for whatever reason (not speculating reasons now)
• Conclusion
  • Maybe I will experiment more with video DMs

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