Swarms, gratitude and good karma
In March 2000, Guy Theraulaz and I made the cover of Scientific American for "Swarm Smarts", a sort of companion article to our book with Marco Dorigo, "Swarm Intelligence" (link). We were elated, not just for making the cover of SciAm but because it was a terrific article that greatly benefited from the work of our super-talented editor -the article was so good that is was republished in 2008 (link).
Working with SciAm editor Alden Hayashi through successive iterations of the manuscript, I could see our somewhat tedious exposition become alive and exciting. And I told him so. When the article came out, so much better than how it came in, I was effusive in my gratitude: Alden had really elevated our prose. What he told me was surprising and a bit sad: authors are usually upset about one thing or the other and my recognition of his essential role was a unique event. I did not consider myself a particularly kind or grateful person, or perhaps it was a lack of awareness, but I was touched by the impact gratitude can have.
About one year passes and I had moved on from the academic universe to the business world. Then Alden writes: he had also moved, from SciAm to Harvard Business Review, as an editor. He thought that as a scientist I had probably never heard of HBR and asked me whether I knew someone who would write a business-oriented article on Swarm Intelligence. Well, not only had I heard of HBR, but I was his man. Then-editor-in-chief Suzy Welch gave the go-ahead. And I got to work with Alden again, with my dear late friend Chris Meyer as a co-author. Alden supported me as editor on a couple more projects, and with each one he elevated the quality of the writing and the clarity of the concepts.
This all lead to an inflection point in my career. Just because I expressed my admiration and gratitude with sincerity, not a common occurrence in my life then. I have been working on it since then. Don't hide your sense of awe and shower people who impress you with compliments and thanks. Even for little things.