An open letter to Penelope Trunk

Dear Penelope,

I saw in your bio that you write columns for The Boston Globe. At right is a picture of me - albeit an extremely frightening one - sporting a Globe tee-shirt (Your world, unfolding daily!). I got it when I went on a high school field trip to your newspaper's headquarters on Morrissey Blvd. None of that really has any relevance to what I'm writing this letter for, but I thought it was a fun little connection anyways.

First of all, I'd like to apologize if I sounded like a jerk in my Yahoo! responds! post. That post obviously carried an obnoxious tone throughout - I thought it made for a more entertaining read - but I worry that you might have interpreted said tone as genuinely-obnoxious instead of faux-obnoxious. That would be unfortunate. And can I just say that I never for a minute thought you'd actually see what I wrote? But that's the internet for you, I guess.

(Speaking of the internet, because of its anonymity, I suppose I technically have no evidence to believe that the comment left on my post was authored by the real Penelope Trunk. Regardless, I'll push forward.)

As for the actual content of your response, you make some points that are undeniably true. Of course it feels good to give to other people. And of course I'd agree that "There is no getting through this world all by ourselves." I'm not like the pre-Help! Beatles, harboring some irrational sense of complete independence that's going to "vanish in the haze."

But still, my basic assessment of networking remains: doing kind things as part of a conscious career-positioning effort doesn't constitute true generosity. Maybe my use of the label "manipulative" that you used in your original article was a mistake. That word probably carries overly harsh connotations. But the label of "generous", I think, with its connotations of virtuousness, is equally inapplicable.

Any act of networking is a simple game of give-and-take, no different essentially than a bank offering a loan with the intent of profiting on interest later. If that's the upfront intent, there's nothing devious about it - but there's nothing particularly noble about it, either. You're just dealing with a different breed of business transaction. That goes back to the point I was trying to convey in my original post, that I'd never be able to vigorously view everything as a networking opportunity, because that sort of approach to life would eventually feel "soulless and impersonal." Am I missing something?

Anyways, thanks for finding my blog and giving it a read. I'll see you around the blogosphere - or next time I pick up a copy of The Globe back home.

Sincerely,
Dave aka D Tram

(note: Penelope's blog can be found here)