Tell Someone They're Great

Yesterday I was having a rather random conversation with some folks on the internet when we started talking about Symbolic Sound, the company behind Kyma. I was a customer of theirs almost 30 years ago, and it suddenly struck me: Kurt and Carla are still doing it.

I haven’t owned a Kyma in decades, but it had a huge influence on me. It pushed me to explore deeper audio processing, discover algorithms I’d never encountered, and think about visual, object-oriented programming in ways that were completely novel to me at the time. Years later, some of those ideas influenced how I helped design the interface for Yahoo Pipes. Kyma is still something I think about today.

And I thought: geez, I should try to call Carla.

I wanted to tell them how much I appreciated all the time they spent answering my questions back then, and how much I admire the fact that, decades later, they’re still passionately building incredibly thoughtful tools that let creative people do things they otherwise couldn’t do.

So yesterday I called Symbolic Sound. Carla and I ended up talking for nearly an hour.

It was such a pleasure to actually tell someone directly how much their work had meant to me. And it made me realize I should do this more often. There are people who have shaped the way I think, the work I do, and even the direction my life has taken.

It’s easy not to tell people what they’ve meant to you. Maybe you don’t know them very well, you’re not close friends, it feels a little uncomfortable, or it simply never occurs to you to say it. But some people have an outsized impact on our lives without ever knowing it. And if you wait for the right moment to tell them, you may never get the chance.

Today, in a bit of uncanny timing, I read Ana Rodrigues’ post, “Tell the speakers that you liked their talks.” Her point was simple: if someone’s work meant something to you, tell them.

Yes. Exactly that.

Kurt and Carla: as I told Carla yesterday, you two are a complete inspiration. Thank you for inspiring me, for answering all those questions 30 years ago, and for still doing such great work.

And if there’s someone whose work has mattered to you, maybe tell them they’re great.