Hacker News Reader

Comment by kelukelugames | Hacker News Reader

After interacting with a few lawyers I realized I am severely lacking in communication and people skills. Their emails were inviting but not over the top. My emails were either too curt or too verbose.

When talking to people face to face, I also work on adding value without rambling. Breathing more helps a lot.

And for fun I'm learning how to draw. Here is some of my work.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/kelukelu https://twitter.com/KeLuKeLuGames/status/553404094958694400/...

View on HN

I really need to do this too. Programming and social skills are each others' enemies.

How are you learning to draw? Did you check out http://drawright.com ?

Yes! I heard draw right is a really good book. But learning how to draw is like learning how to program: too many resources can cause analysis paralysis. I really just need to shut up and draw

The first thing I did was draw the alphabet every day. For example, I would draw something that started with the letter a, then the letter b the next day, etc. It took me more than a month to finish but I saw a huge skill improvement from the later drawings.

How are you working on improving your written communication skills? I think that's something that I and others have lots of room for improvement in as well.

I have three short answers for you.

1. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Nonficti...

2. Watch the video at the end of this link: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/watch-me-write-this-arti... The take away is write, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite some more.

3. Pay attention to the people who write well in your life. When you read an email that feels well written try to figure out why you like it. And use those elements in your future writings.

For writing, I am almost done with this book and it is great:

Writing That Works; How to Communicate Effectively In Business by Roman and Raphaelson

Stresses clarity and writing how you talk.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com