100% in terms of people before project.

Especially when starting something yourself. It sounds obvious but it took me far too long to long to go to people actively talking about their problems and help them vs asking them for problems they are facing.

Making that switch was a big difference in terms of outreach.

Don't say, I've been working on your neighbors house and figured you might want to hire my crew to work on yours. We all know it's a lie.

I'd add two recommendations:

* No abbreviations like "plz"

* No wall of text (and no AI walls of text)

There is plenty advice around for "how to ask" (really, it's the same if you know the person or not). It all boils down to a Calvinistic "show you're worthy" kind of exercise.

But what about advice for giving help to someone?

There's plenty of ways that giving someone help can go horribly wrong, and I think that it's not uncommon for people to be blindsided by such a request.

Alright, after reading this, I'll put it into practice right away. First, I'll make a list of people I want to get close to, and then I'll shoot them an email to see if they'd like to stay in touch with me

Connect, show your own commitment, size for success their requested commitment, leave them an out.

Put attractive female image into your profile. Create secondary profiles with activity if you have to.

Starting yet another project on my primary GitHub profile has zero return. My secondary profile with trivial code is getting job offers...

[flagged]

[flagged]

[dead]