Still sitting out in the sun today, reading and journaling. All day today, I’m committed to not finishing any of the actual Substack articles I have in queue. Instead, I’m filling my Substack Notes space with excerpts from my journal.

The theme on my mind is “dry spells”—that weird, quiet space when you drop old client habits and service lines that no longer fit. It feels strange to do heavy thinking on a sun-drenched day, sure. But I take it as a time for release, letting go, breathing out, and preparing for the next new things around the corner.

So this is me going a bit internal on myself, and how I think/feel/react in this period of transition that comes with the social impact pathway I’ve chosen. Plus, for Part 3/5 another comic (-:

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My prospecting time on LinkedIn is my own. I carve it out deliberately — for my own business development, my own networking, my own pipeline. But inside that same block of time, I've started doing something very specific for other people.

When I come across something useful — an opening, a lead, an opportunity that fits someone I know or have recently come across — I send it directly to that person. A clean link. A direct message. One to one. No broadcast layer in between. No resharing for visibility. No commentary positioning it as something I did.

And the assumption underneath all of it is that nothing will come back. No measurable outcome. No return loop. That assumption isn't pessimism — it's load-bearing. If the behavior were conditional on response it would collapse immediately. It only functions because it's fully decoupled from expectation.

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Most of the time the response is minimal. A like. A brief acknowledgement. Sometimes nothing at all. Occasionally genuine surprise that someone did it without being asked. That's fine. That's the whole point.

What I've also noticed is that it's often easier to do this for total strangers than for people inside my own network. Not because I care less about people I know. But within my own network there's history. And increasing silence as more and more people drop off LinkedIn or opt-out of being always on.

Accumulated silence. Prior exchanges. Implied obligations that may or may not be real but sit in the background of every interaction anyway. That changes the friction of even a simple helpful act. With strangers none of that exists. No ledger. No prior context. No emotional accounting running in the background. It's just the interaction itself.

Somewhere in my head, some stray rethinking of the psychology of zero-ledger acts that an old ex possibly mentioned decades ago fuzzily comes back into focus. Whether conscious or not, previous history, unreturned favors, and implied obligations create friction. I keep thinking that relationship itself probably was as zero-ledger as it gets. 

But then I’m think, hey, helping a stranger operates entirely outside of social or professional debt. Because there is zero expectation of a return loop, there is zero risk of disappointment. And all those zeros add up to something after a while.

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Unconditional prosocial behavior reduces the anxiety of social comparison. I have no idea why phrases like this are stuck in my head. I fear more of that is waiting to seep out.

I’m simply delivering value without the performance anxiety of public networking. Yeah, and I’m helping someone at a time when I would otherwise be navel gazing and retreating. That eases the management speak out of my mind.

Maybe "nothing will come back" is load-bearing for my own mental peace. But the systemic effect on my network is incredibly positive. Even if it means some parts of a network are ending or eroding as new parts are forming. Gack, says I.

New opportunities and information rarely come from our tight inner circles. They come from the outer edges of our networks—total strangers or loose connections—because they operate in different information spheres. Even if the direct return loop is broken or minimal, these acts change your personal ecosystem. They build a reputation for quiet generosity, even if that reputation only exists in the minds of the people I helped unexpectedly. 

Alrighty then…

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Look, it’s clear to me that by stripping ✌️networking✌️ of the "what's in it for me" or the performative "look at me helping" layer, at least I feel like I’m engaging in a highly efficient form of value creation. You know, instead of doubting, fearing, and wondering what my value is.

I’m reducing the friction on others by removing it from my own movement. Maybe I’m maximizing the utility of your time, and operating in a way that generates genuine goodwill.

I know the simple act of stripping away the transactional exhaustion of traditional business development is not the most inspired theme for a day. But any time it gets replaced with quiet, compounding impact? That’s worth the caffeine alone, no?

#SpringDrySpell 3/5