Hand-written Notes In A Digital World

I got a pleasant surprise in my mailbox the other day — a hand-written thank-you note from “fellow blogger” and CMA course instructor Mitch Joel:

<image lost to link decay>

The note was short, essentially thanking me for help on a few things that I was happy to collaborate on. He’d already sent quick e-mail thank-yous but this added touch really jumped out at me.

By breaking free of “business as usual” he got my attention. It was even better that it was done by hand and that his script looks a bit like “hugh macleod’s gaping void style”.

My guess is that the more we move business and personal lives online the more “old-fashioned” modes of communication will become valued. When was the last time you received or sent a hand-written note? What was the reaction?

Bonus question: Do you even have the physical addresses of those that you count as friends and colleagues so that you could do this?


Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on March 8, 2006.