The Help You Help Me Dinner | Hacker News Reader

The Help You Help Me Dinner

helpmehelpyoudinner.org

24 pointsdgsiegel12 comments

We do a dinner like this but everyone pays their own tab. We self-curate a small group of founders and everyone goes around sharing an issue they are working on. Incredibly useful for getting outside views on stuff.

> Specify a time and date, rather than trying to sort out other people's schedules. Usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays around 8pm work best.

Everybody knows Tuesday nights work best, so everything gets scheduled on Tuesday nights :)

If I got an invitation like that, I'd throw it in the trash. It sounds too much like a sales letter, especially when it explicitly denies being one.

Not to mention, I'm suspicious when strangers offer to buy me dinner. Even if it's a "friend of a friend."

Last critique--Networking is great, but it's easy to confuse BSing over pizza with building your network.

I wish I could afford to treat 12 people to dinner. #highschoolteacherproblems

if you're low on cash, do pizza and beer at a brewery or the like. the gesture will be appreciated virtually no matter the venue.

Not everyone can afford a meal out for 12, even at what you consider a cheap restaurant.

12 people feels quite a crowd. From my experience talks in crowds of that size stay typically very shallow. Any ideas on how to keep that more focused?

well, 12 is the absolute maximum, i personally prefer a number close to 10. something which has worked quite well so far is a short introduction of yourself and the idea behind the dinner when everybody has arrived. then hand out some notes with the three rules on it. lead by example ;)

Why is the domain name HelpMeHelpYou... but the site is headed Help You Help Me?

oops! just fixed it, thanks!

It seems to me that there's a bit of historical precedent for 'Help You Help Me', namely Benjamin Franklin's Junto [1].

Two questions, from a much larger universe, put for discussion at the Junto's weekly meetings:

In what manner can the Junto, or any of them, assist you in any of your honourable designs?

Have you any weighty affair in hand, in which you think the advice of the Junto may be of service?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_(club)

Great Idea!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com