Sharing intro cards
Those who know me know that I am fairly introverted.<br>But, I am also someone who strongly values community, and thinks there are huge benefits to be had by building or connecting to one.
A big part of building or integrating into communities is getting to know the people in them.<br>Some people have a natural talent for this.<br>Others have built that skill through many years of deliberate practice.<br>There are also some people who use software to manage and track these relationships “personal CRM”-style (e.g., Monica, or really detailed notes in Google Contacts).
I am currently none of these people.
But, I would like to build the skill.
One reason knowing people is valuable is that it helps facilitate connection.<br>“Oh, I know X is in that industry, let me connect you.”<br>“The Y family has kids that line up with your kids age and go to Z Junior High, too.”<br>“Oh A used to live right around there, let’s ask them for advice.”<br>These types of serendipitous connections can build strong bonds and strengthen a community, but you can only make them if you know enough.
To that end, I think “intro cards” are an interesting idea.<br>Imagine that when you moved in somewhere, or went to a new neighborhood meeting or church event, or met with the other parents for your kid’s soccer team, you could get a small physical card of pertinent information about these new people you met.
In big social settings like that, where you’re meeting a lot of new people, it’s very easy (for me, anyway) to have forgotten the names of the people I just talked to.<br>Now, instead imagine that throughout the event, you were exchanging intro cards, something like the following.
An example intro card, 3"×5" sized.
During the event, you could focus completely on the current conversations, knowing you already have some notes provided to you to recall the previous ones.
Is the concept so wild?<br>In Japan, there is a whole interesting culture around exchanging business cards.<br>In the US, we rarely do so.<br>A small Japanese town recently went even further, making a whole trading card game for the middle-aged members of their town, connecting the youth to older generations in a heartwarming way.
Naturally, these intro cards might include personal information you probably wouldn’t put on the Internet, but might want to provide to people depending on the context.<br>So, of course, you should tune the content to the purpose.<br>You should also feel things out first, before you just go handing these to everyone.<br>For example, in the context of introducing yourself to neighbors, maybe it is something like Bart’s above.<br>If it’s meeting coworkers, maybe it highlights parts of the system you’re familiar with, or your favorite software or languages.<br>If it’s a hobby group, maybe it highlights more about your specific niche interests.
I’ve started trying this idea out in a few scenarios, to positive reception.<br>To make it easy, I just print these on 3“×5“ index cards at home rather than deal with producing actual cards.<br>An example Typst document for it is included below.
Source Code: Example Intro Card in Typst<br>#set text(font: "Berkeley Mono")<br>#set text(9pt)<br>#set par(leading: 0.35em)<br>#set page(<br>width: 3in,<br>height: 5in,<br>margin: 0.25in,<br>// background: rect(width: 100%, height: 100%, stroke: 1pt + black),
// Placed here because these are reused to make links<br>#let telephone_number = "xxx-xxx-xxxx"<br>#let email_address = "[email protected]"<br>#let website = "www.example.com"
#grid(<br>columns: 100%,<br>rows: (1%, 1%, 40%, 2%, 2%, 1fr),<br>gutter: 1.0mm,<br>grid.cell(<br>text(size: 11pt, weight: "bold", "Bart Simpson"),<br>align: (left + horizon),<br>),<br>[],<br>grid.cell(<br>block(clip: true, radius: 3mm, image("bart.png")),<br>align: (center + horizon),<br>),<br>[],<br>grid.hline(stroke: (paint: gray, thickness: 0.75pt, cap: "round"), y: 4),<br>[],<br>grid(<br>columns: (20%, 1fr),<br>column-gutter: 2mm,<br>row-gutter: 2.20mm,<br>// stroke: 1pt + silver,<br>grid.cell([*age*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[Born in XXXX],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*family*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[Spouse: Susan \<br>Children: Johnny (M, XXXX)],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*rel-to*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[Marge (mom), Homer (dad), Lisa (sis), Maggie (sis)],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*from*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[New York, NY (--XXXX) \ Chicago, IL (--XXXX)],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*job*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[Manager at #link("https://www.example.com")[Example]],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*edu*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>[NYU (BS in PR, 'XX)],<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*email*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>link("mailto:" + email_address, email_address),<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*phone*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>link("tel:" + telephone_number, telephone_number),<br>align: left,<br>),<br>grid.cell([*website*], align: right), grid.cell(<br>link("https://" + website, website),<br>align: left,<br>),<br>[], grid.cell(<br>text(size: 5pt, style: "italic")[v25.03], // calver<br>align: right + top,<br>),
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