Last year I contributed a number of patches to pdf.js. Most of my patches were reviewed and merged to the codebase by Yury Delendik. Every single time he merged one of my patches, Yury wrote “Thank you for the patch”. It was never “thanks” or “thank you!” or “thank you :)”. Nor was it “awesome” or “great work” or “+1” or “\o/” or “\m/”. Just “Thank you for the patch”.
Oddly enough, this unadorned use of one of the most simple and important phrases in the English language struck me as quaint, slightly formal, and perhaps a little old-fashioned. Not a bad thing by any means, but… notable. And then, as Yury merged more of my patches, I started getting used to it. Tthen I started enjoying it. Each time he wrote it — I’m pretty sure he wrote it every time — it made me smile. I felt a small warm glow inside. All because of a single, simple, specific phrase.
So I started using it myself. (“Thank you for the patch.”) I tried to use it more often, in situations I previously wouldn’t have. (“Thank you for the fast review”.) I mostly kept to this simple form and eschewed variations. (“Thank you for the additional information.”) I even started using it each time somebody answered one of my questions on IRC. (“glandium: thank you”)
I’m still doing this. I don’t always use this exact form, and I don’t always remember to thank people who have helped me. But I do think it has made my gratitude to those around me more obvious, more consistent, and more sincere. It feels good.
4 replies on ““Thank you” is a wonderful phrase”
I like the fully-automated tryserver emails that start with: Thank you for your try submission. It’s the best!
For some reason it makes me smile every time.
Thank you for this post.
Obligatory: Thank you for this post.
I guess it is a very good point especially in collaborative projects where total often turns out to be bigger than sum of all parts. I feel firefox needed much more amount of carefully executed plans and probably hundreds of small tweaks. Thank you will be the probably only lubricant and motivating factor needed.
I want firefox to excel to prove the value of collaborative efforts and was also following Project Silk. Does this timer issues can also lead to memory and performance? A series of events, poorly triggered can cause glitches, crashes, and can hang the computer.
Thank you for this post! I also get that good feeling when I say thank you, and when someone says thank you to me!